NZ's best...

NZ Jeremy

NZ Jeremy

Well-Known Member
Aquarium collection..?

I'm guessing it one of the big three:

Kelly Tarlton's Underwater world

Kelly Tarltons Underwater World Gallery » ZooChat
Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter & Underwater World

Southern Encounter

Southern Encounter Gallery » ZooChat
Southern Encounter Aquarium and Kiwi House

Napier Aquarium

National Aquarium of New Zealand Gallery » ZooChat
New Zealand National Aquarium - Napier Hawkes Bay

From looking at the galleries it would seem Southern Encounter has the most diverse collection, possibly because it has a larger number of smaller tanks rather the large tank focus at Napier and Auckland..? Napier also focuses on terrarium style exhibits too (probably because there is no zoo there methinks)...
 
I'd go with Napier as the best. The choice of second and third places (Southern Encounter or Kelly Tarlton's) really depend on your expectations. Southern Encounter is very small (but still the largest in the South Island) but has a really good range and very nice setting, whereas Kelly's is large but not much beyond the big tanks. Once those three are nominated there aren't many others left to choose from -- Portobello in Dunedin is tiny but usually has very interesting species (bellowsfish, hagfish, a range of invertebrates) so I would rate it fourth. Picton is very poor (if its even still open: it went into receivership and was up for sale recently), Mapua is tiny but has some nice stuff, Hokitika is very run-down and uninteresting apart for the HUGE eels.
 
Yeah I can't really comment on Southern Encounter as I haven't been... I definitely like Napier better than Kelly Tarlton's, do you know if they have any authority to call themselves the National Aquarium..? Or did they just decide it sounded good..?
 
I'm pretty sure its just a name with no authority to it, like the "National Kiwi Centre" that used to be in Hokitika (later subsumed within the Hokitika Aquarium)
 
Hmmm, it would be interesting if the Politcos in Welly ever decide to build an aquarium run by the DOC in Wellington and pass an Act similar to the one setting up Te Papa with the name National Aquarium or similar...
 
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