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Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World and Antarctic Encounter

Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World and Antarctic Encounter Review

This harborside marine park—the creation of New Zealand's most celebrated undersea explorer and treasure hunter—offers a fish's-eye view of the sea. A transparent tunnel, 120 yards long, makes a circuit past moray eels, lobsters, sharks, and stingrays. In Antarctic Encounter, you enter a reproduction of explorer Robert Falcon Scott's 1911 Antarctic hut at McMurdo Sound, then circle around a deep-freeze environment aboard a heated Sno-Cat (snowmobile) that winds through a penguin colony and an aquarium exhibiting marine life of the polar sea. You emerge at Scott Base 2000, where you can see a copy of the Antarctic Treaty and flags of all the countries involved, as well as some scientific research equipment currently used in Antarctica. You can also dive with the sharks after taking a course or feed various fish.

    Contact Information

  • Address: Orakei Wharf, 23 Tamaki Dr., 5 km (3 mi) east of downtown AucklandAuckland, 1062 | Map It
  • Phone: 09/531-5065
  • Cost: NZ$34; 10% discount for online bookings
  • Hours: Daily 9:30--5:30, last admission at 4:30
  • Website:
  • Location: City Center and Parnell

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