Kelly Tarltons Underwater World Renovations and Rebranding 2012

zooboy28

zooboy28

Well-Known Member
SEA LIFE reaches New Zealand: First to SEA | Tickets | Kelly Tarlton's

Following Merlin Entertainment's takeover of Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World (as well as several Australian aquariums and wildlife attractions), the global entertainment group is rebranding its only New Zealand aquarium as "Kelly Tarlton's SEA LIFE Aquarium". This follows a $5.5 million renovation of the aquarium, which will be completed by 28 September 2012.

The renovation involves a major renovation of the Antarctic exhibit, as well as lesser renovations of the rest of the aquarium. The first of these, Seahorse Kingdom, has already been completed. The others include: Stingray Bay, Pacific Shark Zone, Shipwreck Explorer (the main aquarium), Fish Gallery, and NIWA Southern Oceans Discovery. New features included within these exhibits are touchpools for various sea creatures, NZ's only live Jellyfish, and the only Spiny Sea Dragons on display in the world. Once complete, there will be over 30 animals enclosures, with over 80 species.

The Antarctic Encounter exhibit, built 1994 and home to 80 King and Gentoo penguins, is being changed significantly. Currently, the penguins can be viewed only through distant glass windows, or up closer via a ride in the Snow Cat, a tracked snow vehicle. This also includes viewing of penguins underwater. The new exhibit will no longer feature the Snow Cats and will be a walkthrough exhibit. I don't know how this will work, given the penguins are kept at much lower temperatures than most visitors will appreciate. It will feature a larger land area for the penguins, and a more efficient refrigeration system. There is also a replica of the hut that Robert Falcon Scott used on his 1912 South Pole expedition, which I understand will also change, but I don't know how.

While I am in no way a fan of SEA LIFE aquariums, and know that the Australian rebranding and 'theming' hasn't impressed anyone (at least on ZooChat) over there, I will reserve judgement on Kelly Tarlton's SEA LIFE until I visit. This is because my previous visit, in December 2010, showed a very tired, cramped and below average aquarium, and the renovations will hopefully be a vast improvement. I will hopefully be able to visit in early October, after the rebranding is complete, and will review the aquarium then.
 
artist's impressions on here show the penguin walk-through and a rather non-PC sort of Maori Atlantis themed shark tank!! http://kellytarltons.co.nz/news/exciting-changes-underway/ The penguin bit looks like an "ice" tunnel with viewing through windows, and all the visitors are wearing shorts and either singlets or T-shirts.

Interestingly the publicity says they will/do have the largest captive penguin colony in the world which doesn't sound right. (The link on this post adds in the word "Antarctic" which may be more accurate).
 
Chlidonias said:
artist's impressions on here show the penguin walk-through and a rather non-PC sort of Maori Atlantis themed shark tank!! http://kellytarltons.co.nz/news/exciting-changes-underway/ The penguin bit looks like an "ice" tunnel with viewing through windows, and all the visitors are wearing shorts and either singlets or T-shirts.

Interestingly the publicity says they will/do have the largest captive penguin colony in the world which doesn't sound right. (The link on this post adds in the word "Antarctic" which may be more accurate).
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Yea, I actually thought the 'Pacifica' shark theming looked kinda cool, if done properly.

Viewing through windows does not constitute 'walk-through', I shall not be impressed if they think it does. Next they will be saying walk-through aquariums.

I could believe that they have the largest Antarctic penguin colony, but I doubt they have the biggest penguin colony in the world, although 80 is a lot of birds. Closest in Australasia is Sea World, with ~55 penguins (Gentoo, King, Little Blue).
 
zooboy28 said:
I could believe that they have the largest Antarctic penguin colony, but I doubt they have the biggest penguin colony in the world, although 80 is a lot of birds. Closest in Australasia is Sea World, with ~55 penguins (Gentoo, King, Little Blue).
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Emmen has a Humboldt's penguin colony of about 140 birds, with space for up to 350 in the enclosure.

Edinburgh had 160 gentoos in its colony until recently (their pool sprung a leak and a lot of the birds got rehomed until the pool is fixed): BBC News - Edinburgh Zoo plans for £750,000 penguin colony pool

Apparently San Diego SeaWorld has 200 penguins: emperor, king, adelie, gentoo, macaroni, Magellanic, and Humboldt's.

Just a few of the more obvious candidates for largest colony :)
 
zooboy28 said:
Viewing through windows does not constitute 'walk-through', I shall not be impressed if they think it does. Next they will be saying walk-through aquariums.
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in this article from March (Tarlton's $5.5m spruce up - Business - NZ Herald News) it says '"For example, the new penguin walk-through means people can spend as long as they like viewing the birds, something they can't do at the moment" so it sounds like by walk-through they just mean as opposed to being on the train ridey thing.
 
I just missed the new enclosure: I was there on the 15th and the penguins were in a temporary one :(

I'll post about it soon, but really I do not think much of SeaLife......
 
Some more news on the refurb, nothing especially new, although I have highlighted the difference between what Kelly Tarltons was, and what it is becoming.

Kelly Tarltons To Reveal New Look - national | Stuff.co.nz

Bigger stingrays, swarms of jellyfish and more time with the penguins are all on the cards for the new-look Kelly Tarlton's.

The Auckland aquarium has undergone a $5.5 million upgrade and will relaunch as Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium on Thursday.

Since work started in February, the tourist hotspot has grown to more than 30 exhibits teeming with more than 80 different species.

At the heart of the development are eight new themed zones, including New Zealand's first ever jellyfish display, the world's only display of Spiny Sea Dragons and some rather large stingray - one weighing more than 240kg.

The crowd-favourite penguins are also becoming more accessible, with the average time visitors spend with them set to jump from about two minutes to 25, thanks to the removal of the 18-year-old snow cat machines and the introduction of a themed, walk-through ice cave.

Changes have also been made to the famous Shark Tunnel, which will now be the site of a sunken 9m-long waka and Pasifika theme. The new Rockpool experience will let visitors hold a crab or touch a starfish.

It has been eight years since the aquarium's last major development and general manager James Thomas said the new additions are there to highlight the treasures buried within Kelly Tarlton's.

"We've adjusted lighting and sound effects. Even if the tank itself hasn't changed, everything around it has, so it's quite a different feel and experience for visitors.

"With an attraction like ours you've just got to keep changing and keep people interested each time they come."

The aquarium's parent company, Merlin Entertainment, is behind the multi-million dollar investment which they committed to when they purchased the aquarium in April 2011. The company is the world's largest aquarium operator with 40 attractions around the world.

Thomas said the international perspective had made Kelly Tarlton's take a look at their approach to the visitor experience.

"[Overseas] the attractions are heavily themed and you lose yourself, whether it is in a shipwreck or a jellyfish disco as they have in some of the aquariums.

"It is a completely different way of looking at things. Kelly Tarlton's has always been about what's in the tank and let's minimise everything else - black out the lighting, just focus on the animals."

Behind the revamp, Thomas said, education was still at the heart of what they do.

"Education is the primary reason why we function. And that was Kelly Tarlton's dream - let people come through and experience what they wouldn't normally see in their everyday lives... and educating visitors about the importance of conserving New Zealand's sea life, protecting animals and their habitats.

"[The refurbishment] just takes it to that next level."
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Thomas said the international perspective had made Kelly Tarlton's take a look at their approach to the visitor experience.

"[Overseas] the attractions are heavily themed and you lose yourself, whether it is in a shipwreck or a jellyfish disco as they have in some of the aquariums.

"It is a completely different way of looking at things. Kelly Tarlton's has always been about what's in the tank and let's minimise everything else - black out the lighting, just focus on the animals."
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I quite agree. I am so sick of looking at animals when I visit an aquarium. I want jellyfish discos goddamit!!

I wonder if the overseas aquariums referred to are other Sea Life centres.....?
 
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My impressions of Kelly Tarltons: firstly, I visited on a Saturday afternoon because that was the only time I had spare. It wasn’t the ideal time! We stood in line at the entrance for 25 minutes (!) and then we spent literally thirty minutes in the aquarium. I wrote thirty minutes out in full in case anyone thought it was a typo. Bear in mind that both myself and the guy I was with are aquarium people. Incredibly poor value for money!! I had been to Kelly Tarltons only once before (like, almost twenty years ago) and remembered it as rather pedestrian – basically a penguin enclosure, a big tunnel tank, and then a few individual aquariums – but it really isn’t somewhere I would recommend to anyone to visit, especially since the Sea Life take-over. Partly this is just due to my personal preferences: I can’t really get any enthusiasm for tunnel tanks and I don’t spend long in them. I know most visitors think they are great though (but I do wonder how long they actually spend in them: is it any longer than one pass through, which is exactly the same as myself?).

First up is the penguin enclosure. To be fair, I would have spent longer if the new enclosure was finished but I was about five days too early and the penguins were still in a small temporary holding. However from the photos I’ve seen the finished exhibit doesn’t seem so great. And it would appear that the animatronic killer whale etc are now gone? We breezed through Scott’s Hut (a recreation of the hut of the Antarctic explorer), and again to be fair if we had stopped in here to look at things we would have had a longer visit but it just didn’t interest us. The NIWA interactive room was naturally aimed at kids so again not something we bothered with too much.

Stingray Bay is in the next room. This is quite nice but at the same time very ordinary. There is a massive stingray in there though. Also here is a cafe, and a touch tank which is nicely-designed. There was some sort of Sea Life style ornamentation being constructed in the centre of the room; I don’t know what it was. This room was actually a bit of a jumble. Passing by the stingray tank (the giant squid has gone now) you enter the tunnel. One part is for sharks (some nice sand tigers in here, imported years ago, as well as a wobbegong), the other part for non-sharks. The shark area is really very small, and bizarrely they do a cage-dive in here which must feel like sitting in a shopping trolley submerged in a bath-tub. The Oceanarium part of the tunnel is much as you’d expect, with the extra attraction of a number of the inhabitants being very sick: one eagle ray was in such a bad state that there was no way it should have been in a display tank, and a snapper looked pretty much on the point of death. The sea turtles were in here as well but I only saw one.

Fish Alley is the last room, and is by far the best part of Kelly Tarltons. Individual tanks in here display the smaller fish and invertebrates, including morays, octopus, eels, etc. There are some very nice species in here, including golden snapper and butterfly perch. I could have spent longer in here but the place was packed and it was hard to get space for photography. The start of the Sea Life rot is really evident in this area (it wasn’t yet too obvious in the preceding areas, but you could see the beginnings). The octopus tanks were stark cells with “Olym-pus” theming (i.e. boxing gloves, guns....). One tropical marine tank had lego machinery just dropped in on the coral; really weird! The Seahorse Kingdom I think shows the oddness of Sea Life. This is designed as a Mayan temple for a reason I could not fathom – just really really unnecessary and baffling theming – and yet the tanks themselves were actually very nice. The spiny sea dragons were fantastic as always. There was also a tank here for the sea dragons they recently bred.

I sort of want to revisit when Sea Life has completely revamped the place (for example, I saw no sign of where the jellyfish will be going, and I’d like to see the new penguin enclosure) and yet I really don’t want to have to put myself through that again!! Interestingly enough, I met a chap a couple of days later who had worked at the Sydney Wildlife World before and after Merlin (i.e. Sea Life) took it over, and he said quite bluntly that they ruined it. I can imagine.

I’ll be interested in seeing what zooboy28 thinks of the changes when he visits, and how long he spends in there.

See photos here: Kelly Tarltons Underwater World Gallery
 
Cheers for putting me off Chlidonias! I had a quick glance at the photos, but I don't want to see them all properly and have any surprises ruined :D

I don't actually remember London's SeaLife being this ridiculously bad (e.g the octopus tank), it had heavy theming, but most was acceptable, and some was even rather mature.
 
zooboy28 said:
Cheers for putting me off Chlidonias! I had a quick glance at the photos, but I don't want to see them all properly and have any surprises ruined :D
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don't mention it :D

Honestly, while writing that I did feel like I was being unnecessarily harsh but it is how I feel about the place (and I don't mind saying it, because its Sea Life!!). And writing that I only spent thirty minutes there just sounds stupid, but its true. On the other hand, standing in line for so long before getting in doesn't do one's mood any favours, so factor that in as well. There are good bits still there (which are basically certain animal species such as golden snapper and spiny sea dragon, not the actual exhibits or theming) but overall very very disappointing. Don't go on the weekend either!!

Have a proper look through the photos. Only the octopus and Lego tanks and the Seahorse Kingdom are "bad" (total judgement call there of course), otherwise the photo selection actually makes the place look good!! Most of the tanks in Fish Alley are still fine. Most haven't been touched (yet!), e.g. the eel and rockpool tanks, most of the local marine tanks, piranha tank.

You may well have an entirely different opinion of the place to me. (And of course it will be easier for you to directly compare it to the "old" Kelly Tarltons, because when I was last there Stingray Bay hadn't even been built, and while the Antarctic section was newly-constructed the penguins weren't out of quarantine yet so there were just cardboard cut-outs of them sitting in the snow!!!).
 
Chlidonias said:
On the other hand, standing in line for so long before getting in doesn't do one's mood any favours, so factor that in as well.
Don't go on the weekend either!!
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I think I will either have to go this Sunday or the Monday, which is likely to be busy as its the opening weekend and coincidentally (not) the start of the school holidays too.

I think the entry is stupid, it takes so long to get in, and you have to wait on the ramps while people who pre-bought tickets get to go in front. How dare they favour those who plan!

The actual visitors areas are actually quite small, which gives it avery cramped feel, like many other aquariums actually, although some get it right.
 
zooboy28 said:
I think I will either have to go this Sunday or the Monday, which is likely to be busy as its the opening weekend and coincidentally (not) the start of the school holidays too.

I think the entry is stupid, it takes so long to get in, and you have to wait on the ramps while people who pre-bought tickets get to go in front. How dare they favour those who plan!

The actual visitors areas are actually quite small, which gives it avery cramped feel, like many other aquariums actually, although some get it right.
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I should think the school holidays will be insanely busy there, especially with all the advertising they will be doing to come and see the new Sea Life centre. You are quite right about the small visitor areas, and most aquariums do have that problem which basically comes down to having to have everything within a restricted space unlike a zoo.

Keep a look out for the weird little tank right at the start of the shark tunnel, on your left wall as you enter the tunnel. It was under construction and I couldn't figure out what it would be for.

I'd also be interested in knowing where the jellyfish will be. Southern Encounter was going to get a jellyfish tank but things got in the way......



p.s. you know that if you buy your tickets online you get 10% off I think it is.
 
Chlidonias said:
I should think the school holidays will be insanely busy there, especially with all the advertising they will be doing to come and see the new Sea Life centre. You are quite right about the small visitor areas, and most aquariums do have that problem which basically comes down to having to have everything within a restricted space unlike a zoo.

Keep a look out for the weird little tank right at the start of the shark tunnel, on your left wall as you enter the tunnel. It was under construction and I couldn't figure out what it would be for.

I'd also be interested in knowing where the jellyfish will be. Southern Encounter was going to get a jellyfish tank but things got in the way......



p.s. you know that if you buy your tickets online you get 10% off I think it is.
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-Will keep eye out for tank, sir!
-Was it the roof and walls that got in the way... (too soon?)
-Its $10 off at the moment, which takes adult price down to $24 (still more than the zoo!), but I have to pick a definite date first, before the offer runs out on Friday.
 
zooboy28 said:
The others include: Stingray Bay, Pacific Shark Zone, Shipwreck Explorer (the main aquarium), Fish Gallery, and NIWA Southern Oceans Discovery. New features included within these exhibits are touchpools for various sea creatures, NZ's only live Jellyfish, and the only Spiny Sea Dragons on display in the world.
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Do the other aquariums of New Zealand display only dead jellyfish?:D

This place sounds very kitschy. What was the animatronic killer whale that Chlidonias mentioned like before they took it out? Did it have a simulated attack on people like the "Jaws" ride at Universal Studios?
 
DavidBrown said:
Do the other aquariums of New Zealand display only dead jellyfish?:D

This place sounds very kitschy. What was the animatronic killer whale that Chlidonias mentioned like before they took it out? Did it have a simulated attack on people like the "Jaws" ride at Universal Studios?
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when they first opened the Antarctic section (many years back) there was a ride in a snow vehicle sort of thing with a commentary, which went on a track through a series of exhibits. One was the penguin enclosure, and I think there were two (?) with fake animals. One of those had a model of a crab-eater seal sitting on an ice ledge. There were two people in the vehicle with me, and the woman whispered to her husband "its really still, it must be stressed". Then the head of a killer whale rose up out of the water with a leopard seal in its mouth. The woman didn't say anything else after that!

Video here:
 
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Looked like a skinny harbour seal rather than a leopard.

:p

Hix
 
Chlidonias said:
One part is for sharks (some nice sand tigers in here, imported years ago, as well as a wobbegong), the other part for non-sharks. The shark area is really very small, and bizarrely they do a cage-dive in here which must feel like sitting in a shopping trolley submerged in a bath-tub. The Oceanarium part of the tunnel is much as you’d expect, with the extra attraction of a number of the inhabitants being very sick
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Sounds like yet another disappointing Merlin revamp.
Did they still have any interesting sharks (like sevengills or school sharks)?
 
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