New Zealand
Auckland
Auckland
Full Day Tour
March 5. 2008
Sky Tower
Kelly Tarton Antarctic Encounter – Underwater World
Pride of Auckland Cruise
Sightseeing
Description & Accessibility
SKY TOWER…
Spectacular views of Auckland, two observation levels, one called main observation level, the higher up ‘sky deck’.
There is also three dining areas in the tower, “Orbit Revolving Restaurant”, “The Observatory” and “Sky Lounge” We only went to the two observation levels.
If you are really brave enough you can even jump off of sky tower or can ‘Sky walk’ around on a outside 1.2 meter wide platform 192 meters from the ground.
For me just staying inside and enjoying the view from the observation levels is enough excitement.
Coming up the elevator you can look bellow you and see the ground quickly moving away from you.
Now you may not be the adventurous type that would want to jump off the tower, but it is worth while going to enjoy the view at the top.
We where staying at the hotel at this same location.
Accessibility:
Yes, the tower is accessible, follow the signs for the route to take for wheelchairs.
KELLY TARLTON’S ANTARCTIC ENCOUNTER & UNDERWATER WORLD…
We enjoyed this attraction in Auckland…
Moving sidewalk
Antarctic Encounter – you board a tram on tracks.
Accessibility:
Yes, but…
The moving sidewalk can be tricky to get on and off, the wheelchair lift at the end had no attendant there and we had trouble trying to get it to work, so since at the time I had a foldable manual wheelchair my wife just brought it up the short set of stairs, and with some help from my wife managed to get up them.
The tram that we took in the Antarctic encounter needed to be able to transfer and leave the wheelchair behind.
The Pride of Auckland Sailing Lunch Cruise…
This is worthwhile taking, the lunch is a cold boxed lunch nothing to brag about but still a snack to keep you going; having said that there is different versions of the ‘Pride of Auckland’ sailing cruises and some may have better food serving, we took the lunch cruise so we never went to the inside deck.
You leave dock under engine power, then they shut down the engine and open the sails. They give each passenger the opportunity to take their turn at the wheel and steer the vessel.
This was part of a full day of touring the Auckland area and the original schedule was to tour a museum before the cruise, the tour guide recommended changing that and we visit “Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Encounter & Underwater World” instead and we ended up almost missing the sailing cruise and arrived within a minute or two of the cruise leaving.
Accessibility:
Only if you are able to leave your mobility device on shore and can manage the transfer into the boat even with some assistance. You can pass on the opportunity to get up and steer the boat.
Under Sail power the boat will lean significantly to one side, so if you have mobility issues but still managed to get into the boat, then just stay seated and enjoy the ride.
There is ramps that you can wheel to where the boat is docked but not on to the boat itself.
SIGHTSEEING…
This was a full day of sight seeing in Auckland. The day started by a visit on our own to the top of Sky Tower. Then a guide picked us up and went you a sightseeing drive of Auckland, we stopped for a visit to Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Encounter & Underwater World, then to the ‘Pride of Auckland’ sailing lunch cruise, and then some more sightseeing.
At the end of it all we choose to be dropped off at a shopping center (instead of back at the hotel) and then we took a taxi back to the hotel.
Accessibility:
Sky Tower – Yes
Kelly Tarlton’s – Yes (but not fully) please read the section on that above.
Sailing Cruise – only if you are able to transfer into the boat and leave the mobility device on shore.
Sightseeing – Yes if you can transfer into the vehicle and your mobility device is foldable or quickly comes apart to be able to be carried in the vehicle, no roll on capabilities on the vehicle that we used.
By: Donald Kerr