Day 23: Still in Auckland

I've grown a bit tired of driving long distances, so I've decided to make Pentlands on the Mt. Eden hillside my place of residence until I leave on Thursday morning. FYI: Like many of the "hills" in Auckland, Mt. Eden is an extinct volcano, so the landscape is different here than anywhere.

Today, Patricia and I walked into the village and had coffee (and I had a fantastic sausage roll!!) at Circus Circus. No, not the Vegas casino. One of our hostel-mates works there, so we were being supportive. Then after some quick scheming we decided to drive to Mission Bay to Kelly Tarleton's Underwater World. On the surface, it looks like a touristy aquarium like every other moving sidewalk aquarium being built today. However, we soon discovered that it was among the first, if not THE FIRST to use curved acrylic glass to create a tank that visitors can walk through and under on a moving sidewalk. We questioned how much of the system was original and how much had been added or improved upon since. We were shocked at the answer. The Underwater World opened in January 1985 after more than 10 months of converting water treatment and sewage tanks into the tourist attraction. Its founder, Mr. Tarleton, died 2 months after. In the shop, I found a postcard that showed Mr. Tarleton in 1985 just after opening standing on the moving sidewalk, and almost every feature of the tank and room were identical to what we saw more than 20 years later. According to a documentary about his life, Mr. Tarleton's design served as the prototype for many aquarium exhibits that followed, including Ripley's in Gatinburg (and Myrtle Beach?).

After spending 3 hours underground, we left the center just in time to see the sun set over Mission Bay. Gorgeous, but I didn't have the wind-chill resistance to stay long.

A quick stop at the grocery for dinner fixin's, and we were back at the hostel. What did I buy, given the opportunity? Hummus, pickles, cream cheese, salad, smoked salmon. I miss home!