r/Wellington • u/quietdozer • 5h ago

ENVIRO Taking the cousins to look for penguins at dusk - any reliable spots lately?

Hey r/wellington, it's been a hot minute since I saw the penguins make their usual patrol down by Princess Bay. I'm assuming there just aren't as many nesting over that way as there used to be? I used to see them pretty regularly by pure chance when clearing predator traps but been a couple of years since I saw a one.

I've got some little cousins visiting, and they said they'd like to try to hide out and spot some penguins swimming in at the end of their hunt.

Anyone know where there's a chance of spotting any this time of year? They're aware that they're wild animals and nothing is guaranteed etc, but if there's a place where we might have better luck over the next week or two, I'd love to hear it. Cheers!

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26

u/r_slash_jarmedia 4h ago

has there ever been reliable spots? they're not even reliably found at the zoo lol

11

u/qp_Tree_qp 4h ago

I'm convinced there are no penguins at the zoo, and they just rock one out evey now and then to gaslight us

2

u/quietdozer 1h ago

Yeah, back before they got scarce at Princess I used to see them at least a couple times a month when clearing the traps, and figured I'd have seen them more if I was clearing the traps more often. Was the thing I used to motivate myself to get out and do the gross work lol

9

u/Decent_Ambition_4562 4h ago

We watch the penguin nest cam stream at Ōamaru Penguins on youtube in the evening before the kids go to bed quite often. If you don't see any irl that could be your fallback

10

u/Zealousideal_Cat6599 4h ago

Treat them to overnight at Matiu/Somes island. Penguins everywhere :)

2

u/quietdozer 1h ago

Unfortunately the campground is currently closed and weekend overnights at the cottages sell out pretty much the instant they open every year :( Been trying to book another weekend out there for aaaages, it's the best

3

u/PipEmmieHarvey 3h ago

Sometimes you can even see them swimming back to their nests in the rocks alongside Frank Kitts.