Kelly Tarlton

I stayed up and read until about midnight last night, then went to bed. I slept until about 11:00AM this morning, I couldn't believe it. I never woke up once either, I was out for the count. Not sure why, I certainly didn't feel tired. Ah well, whatever, sleep is one of the four greatest things.

I got up, showered, everyone was gone, save for one other guy, who just seems to sleep all day anyway. I went for breakfast, paid $11 and had a HUGE breakfast. Breakfast is expensive here, compared to Canada, where breakfast specials at restaurants typically are the cheapest meal of the day.

I then hopped on a bus to Kelly Tarltons Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World. It's an squarium-type of doodad, pretty neat, if a little steeply priced at $25. They have a replica of Captain Robert Scott's hut, that they used as a base to trek to the South Pole, in 1911. (He and his team never made it.) We then take a heated "snowcat" and travel across the ice to see a colony of King penguins and some other penguins (can't remeber name). The penguins live in, essentially, a giant freezer that mimicks conditions of the Antarctic, with below zero temperatures and lots of (man-made) snow.

Next is some smaller aquariums, with various sea-life in them, crabs, fishes, eels, seahorses, etc.

After that is Underwater World. You walk through a tunnel underneath a huge aquarium, housing all kinds of fish, rays, and sharks. It's supposed to mimick what a diver would see, and it's pretty impressive. The shark section has some absolutely massive stingrays, that float overtop of you as you walk through the tunnel. It's almost as if they know you're there, and they float above you, blocking out the light. They were massive, wingspan must have been at least 2 metres. The sharks were pretty cool too.

Finished that about 3:30, then bussed back to downtown. When I was trying to find the bus station to catch the bus to the Kelly Tartlton's place, I walked to where the bus station is supposed to be, but it's a huge construction site. They had a big sign, indicating that the bus station was no longer there ("you don't say...", being replaced by a train station. They had a map indicating where the busses would be stopping in the meantime. Anyway, I went back to the train station to check it out. Auckland does have a subway system. It's still totally under construction, but they do have 3 lines already running. The new subway train station is very impressive, everything is a done in a silvery-metal color scheme, very shiny and impressive! One of the trains goes to Mount Eden (the biggest volcano in Auckland), so I'll probably take the train there tomorrow. The main station is also still very much under construction, with danger and warning and "sorry for the inconvenience" signs up all over, along with tape forbidding you from going anywhere that's still under construction, and the sound of hammers, saws, and drills emanating from all over. The first sign that Auckland is actually looking and moving into the future!!

I walked around downtown, bought some more milk and some tea bags, and stole some sugar packets from Starmart, went back to the hostel, inquiried about baggage storage ($6/week...I don't wanna take all my wintery-type clothing to the islands), made a couple of jam and peanut butter sandwiches, made some tea, then read my book for a while, then hit the internet.

I've read so much since hitting Australia, it's unreal. I've never been much of a reader, but it passes the time soooo quickly. I'm almost finished a 615 page epic, "The Ill-Made Mute", book one of a trilogy. Very good, a lot of reviewers comparing it to J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings books. Highly recommended, for those into the fantasy genre.