Discover Kororā, the Little Blue Penguin, the world's smallest penguin.

BLUE PENGUINS PUKEKURA EXPERIENCE TOUR (1.5 Hours)

At dusk, enjoy close up viewing of little penguins returning from a day at sea within the Takiharuru Pilots Beach nature reserve. Watch penguins just a few metres from us as they scurry up the beach to their cliff-face burrows, often stopping just metres from us, allowing for awesome viewing and photography of these birds in their natural habitat.

On tour, we regularly see seals, sea lions on the beach and often see other seabirds such as albatross flying overhead.

Blue Penguins Pukekura tours are hosted by local expert wildlife guides who share the rich cultural history of the area while also sharing biological knowledge of endemic flora and fauna.

It's the mission of Blue Penguins Pukekura to ensuring the protection of the land and increase the diversity of wildlife in this nature reserve while also ensuring visitors experience one of nature’s marvels. We want our visitors to have an experience of a lifetime and their reviews often say this is the best wildlife experience they have had in New Zealand.

Viewing of the Little Blue Penguins is guaranteed and this is an attraction and an experience not to be missed when visiting Dunedin, NZ's wildlife capital.

PHOTOGRAPHY ALLOWED (non-flash)

Need transport or want to explore more of the Otago Peninsula and see other wildlife too ? Click on the ‘Otago Peninsula In-Depth Tour’ button.

Update: Now in December, and with breeding started, the number of penguins we see each night will still vary but we generally expect to see around 50 penguins each night. Numbers of penguins seen will increase for the remainder of the year and during our summer is when we can expect to see as many as 200 birds.

WE GUARANTEE PENGUINS AND WILL OFFER REFUNDS* ON ANY NIGHT WHERE WE SEE LESS THAN 5 BIRDS

We see Blue Penguins 99% of the nights we visit the reserve. It is very rare for us to not see any penguins.

* For our Blue Penguins Pukekura Experience Tour we offer of a 100% refund (in the highly unusual situation where we may see fewer than 5 penguins). This is only applicable for DIRECT bookings by guests that book this tour (our Blue Penguins Pukekura Experience Tour) via this website.

*For our Otago Peninsula In-Depth Tour which includes being guided around the Otago Peninsula and visiting our Blue Penguins Pukekura Experience Tour, we will offer a 100% refund in the unusual event of us not seeing any Blue Penguins on our Otago Peninsula In-Depth Tour (DIRECT bookings only). We will offer a 70% refund of that tour price if we see less than 5 Blue Penguins on this tour (DIRECT bookings only).

We can not honour full refunds for any third-party bookings such as travel agents that make a booking on their clients behalf.

BOOKINGS ARE ESSENTIAL WE ARE OFTEN SOLD OUT ON THE DAY.

For our Blue Penguins Pukekura Experience Tour:

This 90 minute tour starts from within the royal albatross centre situated at the end of the Otago Peninsula at Taiaroa Head. Hear local stories and understand how the plentiful resources, the shape and position of this headland led to the area's use by different iwi (tribes) over many centuries.

The beach we visit to view the penguins is owned by local Māori, we spend time learning about their dedication to the preservation of the area and the wildlife inhabitants throughout this one and a half hour guided tour. This small beach (Takiharuru) has a population of over 300 breeding pairs of kororā/little penguins. It is now the largest blue penguin colony on the Otago Peninsula.

Then just before sunset, we move back onto our purpose built platform to watch and wait for the first birds to return from sea. Penguin arrival time does vary from night to night and we highly recommend our guests come prepared by wearing extra layers of clothing. It can get cold when the sun goes down so for your enjoyment, wearing extra layers of clothes will help to make this one of your most memorable wildlife experiences. 

We use diffused lights to view the penguins at night (these don’t harm or cause any disturbance to the birds).

We are the only blue penguin viewing location that allows photography at night- however no flash photography is permitted.

An added bonus on clear nights is we often get great views of the Southern Cross and the Milky Way above us and your guides will point out celestial features of the night sky when they are visible !

All of our conservation, preservation and restoration work is fully funded by the tour fees. Our values are strongly aligned with the principles of Kaitiaki (guardians of the land and its wildlife) and manaakitanga (care and hospitality of our visitors).

Our 90 minute tours currently run every evening (see the calendar on this booking page)

Please check in within the albatross centre 15 minutes prior to your tour start time.

There is plenty of car, bus or camper parking spaces at the albatross centre.

Note****The albatross centre is only open 30 minutes prior to the Blue Penguin Pukekura tour start time****

Fitness: Low level of fitness required, but note there are a number of stairs to walk up and down between the viewing platform and the car park.

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BOOKING BELOW

( If you need Transport scroll down and click on ‘Book Transport Otago Peninsula In-Depth Tour’ button).

If the date you require is not highlighted it means it is already fully booked.

If sold out, the only other availability might be on our Otago Peninsula In-Depth Tour (if that tour too isn’t already sold out).

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