Aheh....: SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Town Day 2 (Two Oceans Aquarium)

Tuesday, 1 November 2016

SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Town Day 2 (Two Oceans Aquarium)

We alighted at the HOHO bus stop not far from the aquarium which is at V&A Waterfront. I was told by my friends who gave me specific list of places to visit with the children, this is a must visit attraction. voila! The Two Oceans Aquarium

We bought the ticket online as there's a 10% discount on each ticket. The ticket for adult is about RM41 or USD10 per person and children 4-13 ticket is 50% less than the adult.

Two Oceans Aquarium, where two oceans meet, the Atlantic and Indian ocean. I recommend that you arrive either at around 11.30am or 2.30pm, during the feeding time.

presentation by the centre's personnel

the I&J Ocean exhibit feeding

11.30 am - Penguin exhibit

12.00pm - I&J (sponsoring company) Ocean exhibit

2.00pm - I&J Ocean exhibit

2.30pm - Penguin exhibit

During the feeding time, there will be an aquarium personnel to explain to you about the fishes and a pair of turtles in the huge tank. The biggest of the two turtle is Yoshi, named after a character taken from the famous Japanese manga(comic books) 'Dragon Ball' written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama.

meet Yoshi

The smaller turtle unfortunately, arrived at the aquarium in grievous state. Almost blind in one eye and it health deteriorates further until they suck out the contents of its belly and found these (picture below). It survived however, but this is just one. The rest of its kin?

plastics, balloon, ribbon etc...all man made junk

Next show was a few minutes later at the Penguin exhibit. It's two flights up from the Ocean Aquarium.

The penguin exhibit

the African penguin

The African penguin can only be found along the shores of Namibia and South Africa...nowhere else. They are also known as the 'jackass' penguin because of the sound they make.

Their number has dwindled to a point that conservationist had classified them as an endangered specie. In 1910, there were more that 2million birds, now less than 40,000 still in the wild. If it continues, according to the handler of the exhibit mentioned, it would be extinct less than 10 years. In my children's lifetime too!

Among the penguins, I noticed this one...all alone and looked sad. I was told every few years, they would undergo melting process where the old feathers would shed. It takes about 3weeks and during this stage, they're in sorry state and would fast too. But the new feathers would be nice and waterproof.

Penguin during moulting period

The spot pattern on their body is unique, it differentiates
one from another. Each has been given a name.
The keeper knows each of them!

feeding time!

From the exhibit, there's the Touch Pool and Micro Exhibit. Between the both children, Fay enjoyed it more than her brother. Wants to be a vet, she said to me one day.

There's another penguin tank at the children playground, just below the Touch Pool. The Rockhopper penguins swam in it. They looked clumsy on land but underwater, they darted around the tank much to the children's amusement.

Rockhopper penguin darting around under the water

We went back to the entrance where we begin again our visit. We saw moray eels and Nemo tank close to each other. The biggest of the eel was this Honeycomb moray eel. Looks quite nasty though non-venomous. The 'Finding Nemo' tank was a hit with the children. They take turn to crawl underneath the tank and stand 'among' the fish in the tank.

Honeycomb moray eel

Finding Nemo tank

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There were lots of specimen for you to see. Some I've seen at the Aquaria KLCC and some were at the Amsterdam Royal Zoo. Nevertheless, you hardly feel bored watching them. There's always new things to observe, even if you've seen it countless times.

The jellyfish exhibit was a nice touch with the cylindrical tank and UV lights all over the place to enhance the mood of the translucent creatures. The Malaysian jellyfish was also on display here. So happy!