Wildlife Tour: Otago Peninsula Adventure

Discover rare wildlife on a secluded beach tour at Otago Peninsula. Join us for an intimate, guided experience with Yellow-eyed Penguins, Albatross, and more.

Duration: 4 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Otago Peninsula - The journey to Cape Saunders takes you through the beautiful backcountry and inlets of the Otago Peninsula where you will see a variety of wetland and wading birds amid breath-taking scenery.
    Arrive at Cape Saunders farm and experience a uniquely secluded breeding colony of NZ fur seals and a variety of sea birds from two stunning…
What's Included
  • Complimentary Warm and Waterproof Jackets
  • Complimentary High Quality Binoculars
  • Goods and Services Tax (GST)
  • In-vehicle air conditioning
  • No off-route pick-ups during the tour
  • Toilet facilities at the farm
What's Not Included
  • Snacks
  • Our tour is not suitable for children under 5 years of age
Additional Information

Fewer People - More Wildlife!
The Clearwater Family’s Farm boasts more wildlife per square meter than any other location in Dunedin.
The intimate small group tours provide an opportunity to observe Yellow-eyed penguins, NZ sea lions, NZ fur seals, albatross, and a diverse array of birdlife in their natural habitat.
The professionally guided tour,…

Location
City Walks
Please wait directly outside the Dunedin i-Site Visitor Information Centre, located at 50 The Octagon in Central Dunedin. Our white branded tour vehicle will arrive only a few minutes prior to the tour start time. Please arrive 10 minutes prior to the start time and allow plenty of time for parking
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.9
(387 Ratings)
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Yesokwhynot
May 19, 2025
Brilliant wildlife tour - What an incredible experience. Our tour guide was extremely passionate and knowledgeable, able to answer any question as well as imparting a great deal of interesting information. The highlight was viewing the yellow eyed penguins in their natural habitat, we spent a good amount of time watching then from a series of hides. Highly recommend.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Ariaonbank
May 16, 2025
happy experience. - My friend and I had a fantastic afternoon with Clearwater Wildlife Tours, not only saw many beautiful and lovely fur seals, sealings and yellow eye penguins, but also learned some interesting knowledge about the marine animals, a very happy experience, highly recommend!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Tramper2022
May 11, 2025
Wonderful wildlife tour. - Beautiful wild scenery, felt like we were at the edge of the world. Many sea lions and even 5 yellow-eyed penguins arriving on the beach at the end of their day in the sea. The guide was friendly & shared many interesting facts.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
B8923wqkarinas
May 8, 2025
Penguins! Penguins! Penguins! - Awesome experience! Tour guide was chatty and friendly, lots of wildlife to see! Penguins were the highlight of the day! 10/10 would recommend!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Lewis_s
May 7, 2025
4 Exhilitsting Hours - We were fortunate enough to hit the wildlife jackpot, observing no less than a half dozen yellow penguins emerging from the ocean. Add a couple of seal pups and lots of sea lions on the beach. Even if we had not I still would have given this tour 5 stars. The ride and scenery were breathtaking, well off normally travelled routes. Our guide, Eric, was outstanding.
Review provided by Viator
Suzana_z
May 5, 2025
Must to be done - I cannot express in words what a nice my guide Lisa was (is), how many interesting historical data she provided about Otego peninsula during our drive, explained all about birds we saw (and she managed to spot them even being really very far away), stopped anywhere I wanted to take a photo or see something. And then we entered most beautiful estate with sheeps all around, everything well maintained but natural, with paths leading to the beaches where wild sea animals are freely living their lives. Some furry seals sleeping, some moms teaching cubs to swim in small pools on the rocks, some moms nursing their cubs.... I saw several generations of furry seals that afternoon; I should not write too much because it is nice to discover something on the spot and also nice to hear it directly from the guide. I found this tour more than interesting, it completely overwhelmed me. Apart from the wildlife itself, the fact that somebody is investing so much efforts to preserve the habitat for wild animals and enable them living next door, taking care of how not to disturb them and watch after them gives me hope that everybody can do more than we usually do to help nature/wild animals to keep living without obstructions and without taking their habitats away from them. Beautiful tour, everybody should see it; beautiful landscape, beaches, birds, seals, sea lions, pinguins, sheeps…..all in one day……amazing experience.
Review provided by Viator
Saltykat10
May 3, 2025
Fantastic wildlife viewing! - Fantastic afternoon/ evening with Clearwater Wildlife Tours. There were only 4 of us on the tour so no crowding to see the wildlife! We had an amazing guide who picked us up right on schedule and drove us along the coast/harbor for native birds viewing, then we travelled along some interesting dirt roads to the family farm- passed through several gates and saw hundreds of sheep. A short walk to a viewing point along the coast and we saw dozens of fur seals- some dozing on the rocks, others playing in small pools in the rocky coastline. We then traveled to another spot and walked along the beach passing close by several sea lions along the hike- they were mostly dozing and the juveniles were rough housing! The icing on the cake was having the opportunity to see several yellow eyed penguins swim in walk along the beach and up onto the cliff- they came in one by one and would sometimes waddle over to greet a newcomer or just walk along by themselves. The farm had 3 separate viewing stands starting on the beach, 1/2 way up the cliff and at the top so we were able to get a good view of their activity. We were fortunate to see 8-10 penguins- no crowds, just our group!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Julians917
Apr 21, 2025
Unique experience - saw so much up close - There are many tours available of the Otago peninsula. I’m glad I chose this one which was very special. I don’t think the others would get you so close to wild seals and sea lions because the habitats are on the farm so the other tours don’t go there. We also saw albatross and 11 yellow-eyed penguins coming in from the sea. The farm company is very committed to conserving the wildlife so I am sure that the tour fee was put to good use. And Kelly was a great guide. We were also lucky to be in a group of only 3.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Bj_rnh2024
Apr 19, 2025
Great and unique wildlufe experience - Great to be picked up close to our hotel in Dunedin! I guess a bit off season, just us and an Aussie couple on the tour. Our guide Eric gave us a scenic ride on the Otago peninsula with great views and stories before arriving at the Clearwater faily farm. You can tell when you meet a person who lihes his/her job. Eric told us he had been doing this for seven years, but still very enthusiastic about the whole thing! We got to see everything we had hoped for; Fur seals on their rocky place just by the see, well protected from whatever might possibly have a go at them. Lots of moms and cubs resting and other cubs playing in the pools/ponds naturally formed on the cliffs. Sea lions, quite a few, only males, chilling on the sandy beach next to the Fur seals’ place. Great to be able to walk among them, just carefully following instructions from our guide not to annoy these big fellas. And finally Yelloweyed penguins, the rarest penguins in the world and numbers sadly dropping. We were very lucky. We spotted several penguins coming out of the sea, walking across the beach and struggling up the hills to their nests. Technically we saw nine of them and could study, I think five of them, during a quite long time. Great experience, nothing to complain about at all, highly recommended! If you are in to capturing the moment on photo, a smartphone will do fine, especially for the Seals and Sea lions. For the penguins a long tele or zoom is recommended. I used a 100-400mm on a FF body, which was on the short end for the penguins, but still a lot of great memories brought home. All attached photos taken with a smartphone. Thanks to the Clearwater family for the opportunity to experience this!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Evonnec401
Apr 17, 2025
Most amazing up close wildlife experience with a great host! - An absolute must do! We were lucky enough to see so many species of birds, penguins, seals, sea lions- up close. Eric the host was amazing, knowledgeable, friendly and generous with his time. Do not miss this experience! Very lovely, small group of 5.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
From $134
up to 10 guests
1 - Adult
Cancellation: Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start of your experience (local time).