Tuesday – February 24, 2026 – Auckland
Today’s featured photo is a shark we saw at the Sealife Aquarium. This was one of two points of interest we visited in today’s excursion.
Last year we visited Auckland for 1 day. The weather was overcast and cool that day. This year we will be in Auckland for 2 days. Our arrival was under blue skies and sunshine – which would continue through the second day. We scheduled an excursion to visit the Sky Tower – tallest tower in New Zealand and Australia – and the Sealife Aquarium.
Our bus left around 9:30 and the tour was to last approximately 4 hours – so we would have the afternoon to ourselves. After boarding the bus, we drove to the Sky Tower complex (tower, shops, hotel, casino). An escalator took us below street level to the Sky Tower elevators. First stop was the lower observation level at 610 ft. This area gave us the opportunity to walk in a circle for views of the city and surrounding area. There were at least 3 areas of the walk where the floor was glass so you could view below – all the way to the ground. Although there were signs indicating how strong the glass was, it was a bit off-putting to walk over those areas. There are photos in the gallery from this level including one showing the ground as viewed through the floor glass.
We chose to take the elevator to the top observation level at 722 ft. At that observation point there were fewer visitors and no glass in the floor. We were able to look over the harbor and see both our ship (above the NZX building) and Devonport across the bay (where we would go on Wednesday). With clear skies and bright sun, we were able to see quite a way in all directions. There was a sky walker below us in an orange jump suit who was preparing to walk on a ring at the 636 ft. level. We chose not to take that adventure, nor the sky jump from the same level. After spending an hour in the tower, we returned to ground and reboarded our bus.
We did a bit of sightseeing in Auckland on our way to the next stop – Sealife Aquarium. This facility is below ground and barely noticeable as you pass by it on the road. Our bus parked near the entrance and we walked in and down to the entrance. The first exhibit was a replica of Scott’s Hut – a building assembled in 1911 on Antarctica (and still there today). The replica showed a glimpse of life in the far South. There are some photos in the gallery of this exhibit.
Next was a walkway with a rotating tube that led us to the area where we could view 2 species of penguin. We saw Gentoo penguins swimming and as we rounded the corner there were keepers feeding both the Gentoos and King penguins. From that area we saw many types of jellyfish, turtles and rays. We entered a large tank that was above and around us. In that tank were several sharks. One of them swan to and above Kelsey and I. We were glad Gerrit had shown us how to make a shark retreat by punching it on the nose!
After the shark tank we saw starfish, eels, lobsters, octopus, seahorses and crabs. The exit leads to the gift shop (of course). Kelsey was able to find a shark she liked and purchased it to add to her collection. There is a photo of Jan demonstrating the shark deflecting move in today’s gallery.
Our tour continued past several points of interest including the church where Sir Edmund Hillary’s funeral was held. The tour concluded a couple blocks from the dock so we could explore the business area of Auckland. We had been there last year and discovered a food court on the third level of a group of business buildings. We took the escalators up and chose to eat at restaurant that offered smoothies, wraps and salads.
Following lunch, we set out to find a Woolworths to look for Mountain Dew, popcorn and a nutcracker. We found a “Garden” Woolworths within a block of where we had lunch and began to look for our necessities. The didn’t carry a nutcracker, but they did have popcorn (buttered) and they did have Tim Tams (original, double dip and white) and they did have 1.5-liter Mountain Dew bottles. Jan and Kelsey were going to get a couple bags of Werther’s candy for me and were lucky to grab the last 2 in the rack. A crew member from the ship had taken all the remaining packages (probably over 20 of them) which we assume he may be buying for other crew. We also found some Whittier’s chocolates – milk, berry, dark orange and dark peppermint. On our way to the self-check, we also found a couple Cadbury chocolate bars that were on sale for less than half price (we can’t pass up a bargain).
We took our goodies and went shopping for souvenirs. We found a Global Culture store that sold some cute kiwi t-shirts, but they didn’t have the correct sizes. They told us there was another of their stores on Queen Street and checked to see if they had the sizes we wanted. That store did have our sizes and would set them aside for us, so we headed up Queen Street. We made our purchase and Jan and Kelsey went a couple doors down to look for something else. While they were looking, I saw Sonja (cruise director) go into the Global Culture store. When Jan and Kelsey came back, I told Kelsey there was someone in the GC store she might recognize. She went over to check and then I saw Kelsey and Sonja hugging. With Sonja was Christian – lead guitarist for the Magnifica band. We walked back to the ship with Sonja and Christian. I had a nice talk with him about his love of music and the guitar. He began playing when he was 10 and has continued for over 30 years. His favorite brand is Fender for electric and Martin for acoustic.
I included a photo of the dessert I order most nights – cheeses with garnish. Each plate does include blue cheese because it is one of my favorites.
The show this evening was more Māori Haka. I don’t have a clue what they were saying (because if was spoken in Māori), but the show was presented with plenty of energy. In case you are wondering, the black on the women’s lips and chins are permanent tattoos.
The show ended around 10:15. I could see from our cabin that the Auckland Harbour Bridge was lit in red so went to deck 14 with Jan to take some photographs. I thought the bridge was simply lit in red and was surprised when a light show began with changing colors. I’ve included a still and a couple short videos of what I saw.
Today’s photos can be found here.
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