Antarctic Center in Auckland vs. Christchurch

:confused: Does anybody have info on Kelly Tarlton Antarctic Adventure in Auckland vs. the International Antarctic Centre in Christchurch? Any recommendations on which is better? Trying to decide which one to visit. Thanks

Went to both and enjoyed both.... they are quite different experiences.

Kelly Tarlton's has live animals... more like an aquarium. The penguins were just wonderful... I could have gone around in that little electric car for hours just to watch them. You also get to put your hands into the pool with the string rays... they feel like velvet! Very cool. Lots of other fish, sea life to see too.

The Antarctic Centre in Christchurch is about experiencing the actual place.... you can go into a specially cooled room where you can experience sub zero temps like you were actually in the Antarctic (they supply clothing). They have a snow bike in there so you can take photos sitting on it... snow/ice on the ground and the kids were sliding down a small incline. I would not take kids under about three in there though as it gets very cold once they turn the temp down.

Lots of other stuff to look at as well, like a replica of a camp from 100 years ago, what they ate etc. They also had some videos to watch which were quite interesting... I could have stayed longer than the three hours we were there. For an extra cost you can take a ride on the Hagglund... we took video of that ride and it was a lot of fun... kids would love it!

Which one depends on your interests, I wouldn't say one was better than the other.

Kelly T's is live animals/visual and The Antarctic C is information based. I would recommend both; for parents with yound kids maybe Kelly T's and for adults with no/older kids then Antarctic C over Kelly's - if you have to pick one over the other.

If you want more details just ask....

Kim

Thanks for the information Kim, do you know if the ship's tour (Diamond Princess) includes a ride on the Hagglund? Or how far it is from where the ship docks in Christchurch if we want to do it on our own? Is it on the trolley route in Christchurch?

Thanks,

Dale

We did it on our own... not sure if the Princess tour includes the Hagglund ride as it costs a bit more on top of the entry fee into the centre but if you pay seperately once you get there and do the ride first then I don't see why you couldn't do it. Usually Princess tours have a set amount of time at each place, we were there for three hours and could have stayed a bit longer so if the Princess tour has the Antarctic Centre as just one place on the tour you may only have a short amount of time there. For me this is the reason not to take the Princess tours.

The Antarctic Centre is on the other side of the city, we took a bus into the city centre and then another one out to the Centre, you can buy a day tour bus ticket if you want. My advise, take it or leave it, if you do bus it to the Antarctic Centre then take a taxi back to where ever else you want to go as we wasted time waiting for a bus at the centre (right out front) and then didn't do what we planned for the afternoon... we looked around the city for an hour instead of going on the Gondola(which is on the bus route back to the ship from the city) as we didn't think we would have enough time (probably would have but didn't want to risk it).

*Click on the red words to go to their websites*

Kim

Thanks, your info has been very helpful. The other item on that tour from Princess was the Air Force Museum. Is that accessible via bus or the trolley?

I couldn't tell you as we didn't go to the Air Force Museum.... check their website but I bet since it's a tourist place that it would be on a bus route.

Kim