Visit New Zealand

- By Diana Tijoriwalla

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• About New Zealand
• Primary Schools
• Rotorua, the Volcanic City
• Kiwi Speak
• White Island Volcano
• National Bird
• Fruits & Vegetables
• The Sky Tower
• Driving in New Zealand
• Flora & Fauna
• Tranz Metro
• Underwater Aquarium
• The Waitomo Caves
• Traffic Regulations

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Underwater Aquarium

This aquarium was started by Kelly Tarlton. He was born on 31st Oct 1937 & he died on 17th March 1985. He died in his sleep of a heart attack, 7 weeks after the underwater aquarium was opened.
This aquarium has penguins, fishes of all types & sharks. The penguins are kept in their real natural habitat. These are the Gentoo Penguins. A brief description about these gentoos’ are given by way of a video clip & posters.
All fishes & sharks are kept in glass chambers. They have a fixed feeding time, whereby the man dives in & gives them kilos of small fishes with his own hand. The poisonous fishes are kept separate. The glass chamber is so thick, that we can see only one third the size of the fish. There is an escalator which keeps moving round & round, so that you can stand in one place, move around & also see. There is a small tram which goes through the inside of the penguin tunnel, & you can see the gentoo penguin very closely.
Inside the aquarium there is a small museum called the Robert Falcon Scott’s Hut. This person went to the southpole in 1911 on an expedition. Whatever he used is displayed & preserved at this hut. For eg the telephone, piano, his diary, food boxes, clips, bunk beds, gramophone, lantern, boots, mirror, typewriter, chairs, tables, projector, camera, sewing machine, printing press to print books, a small mini laboratory, medicines, and a live documentary keeps going on to show what they did.

Some facts about penguins:
The king penguins are the 2nd largest of the 17 species of penguins. Emperors are the largest. The original colony of king penguin were bred & reared at seaworld in the USA. Penguin feathers are replaced once a year. Until the new feathers come, they cannot swim. The entire process takes about 4 to 6 weeks.

The Gentoo Penguins
Original colony were bred & reared at Edinburgh zoo in Scotland. Gentoos are naturally found in the wild sub- Antarctic Islands down to Antarctic Peninsula. They are the 3rd largest of the 17 species of penguins. The breeding season runs from Oct through to Dec. Sexes are very similar, however the female is slightly smaller & has a finer bill. They feed mainly on small fish, squid & crustaceans.

How the penguin enclosure works?
The area is 574 sq.meters. The pool is 220 meters, 3 meters deep & holds 200,000 liters of water. 3,000kg of snow is distributed daily. The pool temperature ranges according to season from 7 degree to 11 degree. The pool is filtered salt water, which goes through ozone sterilization to kill any pathogens.

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