Day 251 - Melboune, Australia

MELBOURNE AQUARIUM (09/09/09)

Much to Liz's excitement we found out that the Melbourne Aquarium had a temporary penguin exhibition so we headed into the City to pay a visit.

Part of the enclosure was an enormous glass fronted tank so that you could see the penguins swimming around. This is a Gentoo Penguin, the third largest penguin species and world's fastest swimming bird.

Shortly after we had started watching the Gentoos the larger King Penguins jumped into the water. Second largest of all penguin species the Kings are also the iconic image of a penguin.

There were far more penguins than we had expected, probably about 40 in total.

The enclosure had been specially built. The penguins were sealed in so that the temperature inside could be kept appropriatly low and they even had real snow which was topped up using a snow machine every few hours.

The rest of the Aquarium is also very impressive, home to hundreds of different marine species, mostly from Australian waters. This Lion Fish lives in tropical waters and has dangerous venomous spines.

The Aquarium further boosted our excitement about visiting the Great Barrier Reef in a few weeks and seeing fish such as this Angelfish for ourselves in the wild.

These jelly fish were lit by UV light which, amazingly, causes their usually clear bodies to turn flourescent orange.

Another of Australia's large selection of jelly fish.

The Aquarium also boasts a huge tank with glass tunnels through which you can walk.

Swimming around together in the huge tank are many fish species, large sharks and these enormous Manta Rays.

Moments after this photo was taken this Giant Octopus leapt onto the back of Adam's head and tried to devour his brain. The ensuing struggle lasted several hours and the details are still too painful to talk about.

At Liz's insistence we went back around into the penguin enclosure. We must have spent at least three hours in there although being that Liz has had to put up with many hours of iguana photography she can probably be forgiven.

And Adam didn't really mind too much. The King Penguins seemed almost as fascinated by the people on the other side of the glass as we were by them.