Feb 17 saw us visit the The National Aquarium of New Zealand, which is in Napier. This was a small aquarium with no large animals, but it was perfect for Sprout. He ran around with his cousin looking at fish and other animals. There was enough to keep me interested as well. The exhibits were excellent, and I liked that they had lots of local fish and animals. They also had some enormous eels which I though were cool.

There was a scuba diver that did a fish feeding show that was entertaining for the kids, but right next to that was a shark tank. This tank had a tunnel right through it which made for excellent viewing.

The first time I walked past the turtle tank I didn’t see anything. I didn’t think much of it, but the second time I went past the tank I saw the turtle tucked away in the corner. What a magnificent animal. As usual I was entranced by the animal and thankful to have experienced it, but I was also sad that it was captive there.

They also had Kiwi’s in a special habitat. Kiwi are nocturnal birds and would normally be sleeping. Their enclosure was darekened, but a red light enabled us to see two of them. They were walking around poking their beaks into the ground looking for food. Here is a really bad picture where you can almost make out a kiwi.

Outside we saw these huge Megaladon jaws. Everyone else was taking their pictures in them so we did too!

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