A Trip to Australia and New Zealand
Auckland
After Mercury Islands and another night at sea we docked at Princess wharf in the heart of Auckland. Our first stop in this very modern, very busy, very large, very clean city was Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World and Antarctic Experience. A free bus, garishly shaped and painted like a shark, took us from the Ferry Building straight out to the attraction which is housed in an old underground sewer plant. I do not normally find these kinds of things to my taste, but this was an exception. There is an excellent aquarium and a fantastic collection of penguins housed in the old sewer system. Forget the hoopla and concentrate on the animals - it is a must see.
After the penguins, the shark shuttle took us back to the Ferry Building and we boarded a city bus for the trip to the Auckland Museum. On entering the museum we were met by three of the indigenous people who stuck their tongues out at us in the traditional Maori greeting before putting on an excellent demonstration of their traditional songs and dances. The Maori collection in this museum was the finest and most extensive that we saw anywhere on our trip. We spent three hours admiring it and barely scratched the surface. One could easily spend days and perhaps weeks in it, but eventually our minds went on boggle and we moved on to a nearby pub and some Mac's Gold on tap. The beer stop was followed by some notably unsuccessful shopping efforts, another beer (Monthieth's Ale - also good), and then back to the ship.
