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

BLUE PENGUINS PUKEKURA EXPERIENCE TOUR (1.5 Hours)

Kia ora, we welcome guests to join our guided tours to visit the largest colony of penguins on the Otago Peninsula !

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.

ABOUT OUR TOURS

At dusk, enjoy close up viewing of little penguins returning from a day at sea. Watch penguins just a few metres from us as they scurry up the beach and start to make their journey to their cliff-face burrows.

Our viewing platform is situated where you can see the penguins swimming in from the sea and landing on the beach just below us. From there they head for our aptly named “Penguin Highway” their main access to the reserve. This is a place where our penguins often stop allowing for awesome viewing observations of penguin socalisations 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.

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:

In January and February 2026 we will likely see 30-100 penguins each night!

In the non-breeding months (March to August) we expect between 10 - 80 penguins each night.

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 all of our tours we offer of a 100% refund (in the highly unusual situation where we don’t see any penguins or a 50% refund if we see fewer than 5 penguins). This is only applicable for DIRECT bookings by guests that book our tours via this website.

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 (Sometimes several weeks in advance).

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.

Bring warm clothes! 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.

Click HERE for walking access details

START YOUR
BOOKING BELOW

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

If you need Transport and want a guided tour from Dunedin then book our other tour (Otago Peninsula In-Depth tour).

Sorry we do not have a waitlist, any cancellations for a sold-out future date will show up as free spaces on this website automatically.

If sold out, the only other availability might be on our Otago Peninsula In-Depth Tour.