At the end of last month, my friend Doug Wreden held his annual charity event for the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation, during which one of the stretch goals—at half a million dollars—was for him and me to go to New Zealand to buy cologne and visit the aquarium as an inside joke. We met that threshold, so as promised, Doug and I went to SEA LIFE Kelly Tarlton’s Aquarium in Auckland, New Zealand.

I’ve been to a handful of aquariums before—the Aquarium of the Pacific, South Carolina Aquarium, and Seattle Aquarium just to name a few—and comparatively, SEA LIFE was a little bit underwhelming. With that being said, Auckland isn’t exactly one of the biggest cities ever with a ton of resources, so contextually speaking, SEA LIFE wasn’t actually that bad.

The aquarium started with a section that was basically a history museum, which was a little bit strange. However, once we got past that part, it started resembling what you’d expect from a typical aquarium.

My favorite part of the aquarium was the immersive tunnel. I’ve seen other aquariums that have the 180° glass tubes that allow you to see fish, sharks, and other sea life above you, but the one that SEA LIFE had was far more advanced. The tunnel was much longer than expected and laid out in a circular pattern. It had an automatically-moving conveyor belt so you could stand in one spot and take in the view around you without needing to walk.

I took a lot of photos throughout the aquarium; below are the ones that turned out the best: