Melbourne Aquarium

The other day we decided to go and check out the Melbourne Aquarium.  The kids were excited because we had seen pictures of PINJARRA: THE MEGA CROC!  Pinjarra is a 50 year old 750 kg crocodile who is the central exhibit at the Melbourne Aquarium.

The Aquarium is beautiful and again they do lots to really engage children.  There are little passports for them to stamp at the different exhibits and lots of neat fish I had never seen before: sawfish, elephantfish, etc.  I know I've said it before but I really appreciate how places are promoting kid-friendly activities with animals - so smart.

The Shipwreck and Mermaid Garden exhibit is a huge tank with all sorts of sharks and fish and the biggest manta rays I have ever seen.  That was the adult favourite part.  Manta rays the size of our dining room table swimming overhead in a glass hallway.  Then Keith pointed out the sign that the glass can make the sea life look 1/3 smaller than it actually is - unbelievable.

There were kids activities at Pinjarra's exhibit and the kids got their Mega Croc Rock stickers and crocodile tattoos there and then got to stand on the glass panelling over Pinjarra's enclosure.  He's pretty impressive.  He was found in a farm after a severe flood and I just kept trying to imagine that poor farmer's face!  There were other lizards and creepy crawler things in this section - it was not my favourite but of course Cian loved it.

Emily's favourite was probably the penguins.  They are the piece de resistance at the end.  There was one particular penguin that took a real liking to her and kept following her all along the glass.  Even other people started to notice and thought it was super cute that she had a little black and white friend.  At first she was a little scared of them but after a while she was just a big of fan of them as they were of her.  It was pretty adorable.

It was a pretty fun day Under the Sea.