Napier

We had just a quick stop in Napier, which is famous for it’s art deco architecture, and headed straight for the National Aquarium.  There we got a behind the scenes tour from “Crazy Scotty.”  Scotty showed up late with a smile on his face and a bucket of sliced raw fish and we knew we were in for a treat.  The first thing he did was pull a Blue Tongued lizard out of its tank and show us how it would kiss him if he put it near his lips.  He then let Keeks take a turn but as the lizard approached Keeks would pull away at the last minute not quite able go though with it.

Scotty then took us to the cichlid tank where we were allowed to hand feed the fish.  Next he dug up some mealworms and we hand fed them to a green water dragon. Scotty tried to feed it by dangling a worm from his mouth but the dragon wouldn’t bite. Keeks was then told to grab a handful of raw fish, put his hand in a tank of goldfish and squeeze it into a pulp as the fish frenzied around his hand.  Scotty then fed a two foot long koi by dangling a piece of raw fish from his mouth, getting his faced completely soaked in the process.  The rest of the hour and a half tour was more of the same with lots of jokes mixed into some great educational content.

This was definitely not at all like a tour you would get at one of the US aquariums (or Sydney for that matter) but was so much fun.