I don’t think children need paid activities to keep them entertained but sometimes I come across something that I think is worth the ‘investment’ and the Goat Island Marine Discovery Centre was one of those activities.

We were staying in Leigh ( a delightful seaside town , about 1 and a half hours north of Auckland ) and decided to visit Goat Island, a marine reserve about 15 minutes away to see if we could see any fish from the rocks as it’s a little cold to snorkel in September.

 

 

The swell was a little big for the fish to comfortably navigate the inner rock crevices but we still had lots of fun rock hopping and watching the waves crashing on to the rocks as well with the added bonus of a blow hole.

The area has changed a lot since we were last there and the Marine Discovery Centre cleverly enticed us up the hill with a lovely path and questions along the way. When we got to the Centre we discovered they had a school holiday programme that was running the next day. Angela at the front desk was super helpful and was involved in the activity the next day. Knowing that the weather forecast wasn’t too promising and that the kids were going to learn heaps about marine life we booked in.

The next day it turned out my two were the only kids doing the activity and there were two instructors ( added bonus of one-on-one attention ) The kids got to identify 20 different types of sea life in the touch softly tank and both instructors were a wealth of knowledge and even able to keep up with all of my 8 year olds questions…no mean feat!!!

Then it was on to dissecting a mussel and learning how to do a scientific analysis. From there they got to use a giant microscope and feed the dissected mussel to the octopus.

All in all the kids had a great time and learnt heaps from Angela and Maree.

As we walked back to the car there was the added bonus of the eels in the stream on the beach at Goat Island where they played for another hour – proving my theory that you don’t need to pay for activities!

You could also explore the Goat Island walkway.

You may like my blog on other things to do in Auckland or close to Auckland.