After being in Auckland for a few days we wanted to begin doing some more adventurous activities. I've always wanted to dive in with sharks but not inside a cage so when I saw the diving possibilities at Kelly Tarltons Aquarium it sounded amazing.
We got to the aquarium and was put in our wet suits straight away and taken into the training pool to do our skills. Although we've done three dives already, we don't have our open water certificate so are still counted as beginners and had to go through our discover scuba again - we really should have just done the course!!!
Once in the tank we had to jump over the viewing tunnel and across to the feeding zone. Once there we knelt on the bottom of the tank with 24 sharks and a sting ray swimming all around us. there were four types of shark in the tank, sand tiger sharks, school sharks, broadnose sevengill sharks and a wobbegong shark ( a type of carpet shark). Apparently the wobbegong was the most dangerous in the tank and the only one they dont feed by hand and instead use a stick.
We got to sit in the tank for half an hour with the sharks swimming over our heads, up to our faces and basically all around us. It was absolutely amazing to have sharks of around 6ft long swimming all around us with no cage and no protection. One of the best things I've done. Bring on the next adventure in NZ
After the diving we went round the rest of the aquarium and saw the penguins and sting ray. I loved the penguins some were swimming and some were having a bath and were so cute. We walked round rest of aquarium waiting for the afternoon shark feeding and saw some very strange types of fish, sea horse, and crabs.
In the afternoon we watched the sharks being fed by hand huge chunks of fish. It was only after we had been in the tank with them that we were told the sharks are only fed twice a week and it was four days since they were last fed. This is why they were so inquisitive and coming up so close - luckily we didn't become their dinner though lol 😊
We've been thinking about it for a while so when the opportunity arose we quit our jobs, rented out our house, said goodbye to friends & family and packed our rucksacks for a trip of a lifetime for 9 months ... full info
