Which two oceans, mum?

It's a pretty valid ques­tion when asked by a four-year old en route to the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, but it had me stum­bling for a moment as, with my indic­ator stuck, my head craned round to see oncom­ing traffic, and my other fin­ger reach­ing for the air con­di­tion­ing that needed a mighty over­haul if you con­sider the angst with which it was emit­ting tepid air, my brain and mouth couldn't get in synch to wrap around the rather meaty 'Indian and Atlantic, love'.

Just as well it isn't the Pacific Ocean that meets the Indian or the Atlantic, or my child would have spent at least ten minutes talk­ing about spe­cif­ics. The Two Oceans Aquarium based at the V&A Waterfront is prob­ably the only major tour­ist attrac­tion to which Capetonians actu­ally go. Well okay, that and Table Mountain, Boulders beach and a couple of oth­ers. But what I'm actu­ally try­ing to say in a round­about way, is that it is a great place for loc­als with chil­dren, par­tic­u­larly given the cur­rent 'Take 4!' spe­cial, which allows two adults and two chil­dren to get in for R180.

The Two Oceans is beau­ti­fully laid out. There is an almost 'other worldly' atmo­sphere about it and one is imme­di­ately lost in amongst the aquar­ium exhib­its. Every time I man­age ten minutes infront of the kelp forest I make an undy­ing prom­ise to return on my own for con­tem­pla­tion to get the cre­at­ive juices going. I have yet to do so, but I will!

Kelp forests, such as this one, are only dis­played in two aquar­i­ums in the world — the other is Monterey Bay in America. This one in par­tic­u­lar houses three types of giant kelp. I must say, if I were a fish, this is where I'd like to be...

On our last visit, my son had his back to the exhibit when the aquarium's CEO (or at least I think it was he) took that moment to make a dive in his scuba gear and reared up right behind my son, who jumped about ten feet in the air much to the hil­ar­ity of all at the exhibit at the time. And you don't have to be the CEO to dive in the kelp forest.

You'll need an advanced scuba qual­i­fic­a­tion, but with it you can feed the hun­dreds of fishes con­tained in the 800 000 litre exhibit, or dive with the sharks in the I&J Predator Exhibit (for this you'll need an open water one or dis­cover scuba qual­i­ficaton). See Diving at the Two Oceans Aquarium.

The Kelp Forest is by no means the only high­light at the aquar­ium. Exhibits are divided into an Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean gal­lery, each of which has an array of dis­plays full of vibrant fish, crabs, eels and whatnots.

The Atlantic Ocean gal­lery is great for the older kids as its full of jelly fish, octopus, Knysna seahorses and giant spider crabs, whilst the Indian Ocean is full of dart­ing, col­our­ful fish typ­ical of more trop­ical regions. So you'll see but­ter­fly fish, dam­sels (not those in dis­tress), sur­geon­fish and angelfish.

A quick tip: should you need a diver­sion, find Nemo and Dory in amongst the Indian Ocean gallery.

Frogs bey­ond the pond should work its magic too. It's a fairly new exhibit brought about by the International Year of the Frog (2008). There's a large touch screen to mag­nify the dif­fer­ent frogs, many of whom are under threat, there's a frog pup­pet show, which out­lines the jour­ney of the Western lepard toad from a sub­urban garden to a wet­land — it's a win of an exi­hibit for both big and small, espe­cially when sur­roun­ded by giant arum lil­lies, mush­rooms and clivias.

And just when things start to get tough — you'll have made your way through a whole floor of exhib­its — you'll head down the ramp towards the Afrisam Children's Centre and get a few minutes res­pite, whilst you watch the seals con­tinue their antics under the water. There is always a series of arts and crafts on the tables for chil­dren. It is a great space for them (and their par­ents) to relax and daily pup­pet shows  intro­duce them to the world of Peter the pen­guin, Nemo and a rather men­acing shark.

Upstairs is the Sappi river meander you'll find a colony of African pen­guins and rock­hop­per pen­guins, African black oyster­catch­ers and a series of river fish, although you might have to breathe in slightly shal­low breaths as it can get a little smelly and a tad warm up here.

Somewhere in between, or after, make time for the I&J pred­ator exhibit where rays, log­ger­head turtles and ragged-tooth sharks swim peace­fully side-by-side and then when you can no longer remain on your feet, head down to the Shoreline Café, which, thank good­ness, stays open until about 6pm and does a few mean 'family-oriented' meals.

It's a good place to meet friends in the after­noon, fol­lowed by a meal if you intend miss­ing the traffic out of town again. There is also a ded­ic­ated children's play area that gives you a well deserved cap­puccino break! (The res­taur­ant has just been ren­ov­ated and trans­formed into a deli/self-service facil­ity, due to open again in the second week of November).

There is always some­thing new going on, and vari­ous other fun things — such as sleep overs, even­ing lec­tures, com­pet­i­tions and gala even­ings. And chil­dren can have their birth­day parties here too. So when you're next at your wits end for an out­ing – head off to the Two Ocean Aquarium.

Contact:
Address: Two Oceans Aquarium, V&A water­front, Cape Town
Telephone: +27 (0)21 418‑3823
http://www.aquarium.co.za/

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