Amazing experience well worth the price! Money goes to conservation of these beautiful little guys! General admission ticket is sufficient. If you’re lucky some of the penguins will even walk through the general stand! The seals are very entertaining and you can visit during the day to hang out with the seals for free but are unlikely to see any penguins! We saw 2 within 2 hours!

What an amazing experience and well worth the fee. For those complaining about the fee: go without a boujee coffee for a few days and do something good in the world to support conservation. The centre obviously works hard to ensure that these little guys are going to be around for generations to come. Your “fee” helps support & fund much needed research. Please heed the “rules” - they’re there for the penguins protection. It pissed me off to see one guy filming and a lady taking photos after you were asked not to but more importantly the REASON WHY. Not everything needs to be “for the ‘Gram” and I’m not sure why these people thought they were above the rules, but I digress. Someone else has very eloquently explained in the comments. Our host (Jan 26) was very knowledgeable and I enjoyed chatting with you about your Adélie research too. I’ll cross my fingers for you for your Antarctica research trip. Hope Stevie, the Fiordland is doing ok. ??

A total of 232 little penguins are going to melt tonight, so cute! Be sure to buy a $44 ticket. There are very few people recently. In the end, only the two of us➕The staff must go!

Fee per person to see penguins seems a bit overpriced... I can understand part of money goes for keeping that place safe for penguins, but still... No, thanks.

Fabulous to see all the penguins, really disappointing you could not take photos or purchase photos of what we saw, missed opportunity here.

It was an amazing experience and well worth it. We were very sceptic because of the price but since it funds the whole colony it was definitely justified. We saw 274 penguins come back and some even waddle through the stands to make a short cut to their nesting grounds. It is definitely a must do.

What an amazing experience! The penguins come ashore in 'rafts', first six, then 10, then a dozen or so at a time until over the course of an hour and 20 minutes, we saw 101 little, or blue, penguins come ashore tonight. Very interesting to see them work their way through the fur seals and up the slope onto level ground and onwards to their burrows. We had a good view of everything from the 'General' area. Absolutely lovely. The comments below on the 3rd and 21st December 2018 are misunderstandings and best ignored. The host and the lady running our campsite both explained that the penguins' vision is adapted to see in the blue and green parts of the spectrum, which is their natural hunting environment. The special orange sodium lamps used in the colony and indeed around the entire bay do not bother the penguins, who see the light as if it were dusk. The penguins were calm and not stressed as they came ashore, being more concerned about the seals than anything else. The fence is there to keep predators out, a fact born out by the breeding success and increasing numbers in the colony.

Amazing experience - 40 dollars a little bit expensive but worth it. 7 penguins came very close to the viewing area amazing

We did saw 241 penguins. We enjoyed and think it worse the money (but no more than 35$ for sure). We think they do something good for the penguins, but should not do the premium seat with the path inside the nests. They should make more funny sign which explain why penguins needs to be far from human and a museum. So maybe people will realise penguins is not a pet. Also people stand up, talk and take pictures even if its not allowed during the show. They also try to help the yellow eyed penguins, in danger, by building nest for them on a other beach in Oamaru. Hope it will stay free by the way ;) Everything is getting so expensive here in NZ!

“Thank you for your review! We're glad you enjoyed your experience! :) And yes, we are working on creating more signs and new informative spaces to explain our conservation role, which is a big part of our work.”

Had a fantastic experience here, seeing 112 blue penguins come into nest for the evening. Ignore the comments below about being cruel, the penguins can come and go as they like! Great experience, would highly recommend!

“We're glad you enjoyed your experience! And yes indeed, penguins can come and go as they like! ?”