Building Kelly Tarlton’s

A world first in New Zealand!

A triumph of determination, innovation and technical brilliance, the building and design of the Underwater World has become a blueprint for aquariums around the globe. And, nine years later, the building of the Antarctic Encounter was another world first; never before had a huge frozen Penguin environment been constructed underground!

 

Underwater World 

Eyebrows were raised when the late Mr Kelly Tarlton had the idea to build an aquarium in the disused sewerage holding tanks under Auckland’s waterfront.

But two years later, in January 1985, Kelly Tarlton’s brainchild came to fruition when, after 10 months of construction, Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World was opened. The NZ$3 million underground project wasn’t easy, but Kelly was not one to be put off by a challenge.

Never before had a 110-metre long, transparent acrylic tunnel been built so the design was completely innovative. Importing the prefabricated tunnel sections proved to be just too expensive, so Kelly flew in enormous, flat sheets of acrylic from Germany. These were formed into the correct dimensions and then the one tonne sheets were oven heated and curved to the required tunnel shape. Before importing the sheets, Kelly tested this process on a small piece of the material in his home oven! 

The sections were carefully lowered into the site in special order, through a hole in the footpath of Auckland’s waterfront. After the tunnels were sealed, everyone took a deep breath as they were tested to ensure they were watertight…and with a sigh of relief… they found no leaks! This was a world first; a transparent, underwater tunnel from which the public could be face to face with Sharks, Stingrays and other marine creatures. 

Skilled craftsmen constructed rocky reefs and caves from concrete and Kelly’s staff carefully selected marine life from local coastal waters. Finally, the tanks were filled with filtered seawater and the fish and Sharks moved into their new home, The Underwater World. 

Antarctic Encounter

We built one enormous freezer... 

In May 1994, the staff at Kelly Tarlton’s completed another amazing feat; the building of the first underground frozen environment for Antarctic Penguins, at a cost of NZ$15 million. 

There were huge engineering challenges to construct the frozen environment; working around tidal flows and anchoring the structure to the sandstone rocks below so the incoming tide did force the structure above ground! A large ‘freezer’, which can operate between –10º Celcius and 3º Celcius, was designed and built offsite. Visitors now ride through this area on Antarctic snowcats. 

King Penguins and later Gentoo Penguins were brought in from the USA and Scotland on special flights complete with individual air supplies and ice. It was the first time birds had been imported to New Zealand from anywhere except Australia. To meet strict government criteria, Kelly Tarlton’s built the country’s first high security quarantine facility for the Penguins. After the required quarantine period, the birds were welcomed into their brand new frozen home, in Kelly’s Antarctic Encounter, which opened on May 2, 1994.

Stingray Bay

In December 2004 Stingray Bay was opened at Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World. The new exhibit features a giant 350,000 litre open topped tank that is 2.6 metres at its deepest point and constructed of crystal clear acrylic for optimum viewing.