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Dunedin City Highlights, Otago Peninsula Scenery & a Guided Penguin Reserve Tour

Port Chalmers, New Zealand

Dunedin City Highlights Otago Peninsula and a Guided Penguin Tour

5 hours (approx.)
Pickup offered
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Overview

Travelers short on time in Dunedin who want a comprehensive overview of the city and the Otago Peninsula will love this five-hour small-group tour. After stopping at Dunedin city highlights like Baldwin Street, the University of Otago, and the Octagon, you’ll head out to the Otago Peninsula to enjoy nature. Learn more about penguins on a guided tour of the reserve.

Receive personalized attention on a small-group tour
Participants can be picked up from Port Chalmers or the city
Take great photos of Dunedin’s neo-gothic architecture
Wildlife lovers will enjoy visiting the Otago Peninsula

What's Included

Bottled water
GST (Goods and Services Tax)

Snacks
Lunch

Meeting and Pickup

You can head directly to your preferred meeting point, or request pickup.

Meeting points

Select a meeting point

Type to search

Pickup point

Port Chalmers, Dunedin

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

Pickup details

We have 2 starting points: 1. For cruise ship passengers at Port Chalmers, cruise terminal private tour waiting area, close to door 2. 2. For non cruise ship passengers at the Octagon, outside Dunedin Visitor Centre

What To Expect

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible
Near public transportation
Infant seats available

Not recommended for travelers with back problems
Travelers should have a moderate physical fitness level
This tour involves walking up and down the hills, travelers need to be fit to walk for up to 1 hour
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 13 travelers

Cancellation Policy

This experience is non-refundable and cannot be changed for any reason. If you cancel or ask for an amendment, the amount you paid will not be refunded.

This experience requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.

This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Reviews

4.0

56 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

We perform checks on reviews

Showing 1-10 of 56 reviews

Terrible

Brian_C, Apr 2024

This review is strictly for the transportation provided. There were 2 groups doing the same tour. 1 group went in a giant spacious van or mini bus with giant windows. We got stuck in a tiny mini van that had a smell of cigarette smoke and Deodorizer. The aisle was 9 inches wide and 10 inches from my seat to the back of the seat in front of me. Myself and the guy sitting next to me couldn’t even sit properly. Our knees were out in the aisle. The guide, Steffen was great, the sites were great. The van had zero suspension. My head hit the ceiling several times going over bumps. I ended up carsick and in tremendous amounts of pain for enduring 6 hours of this. This van was a rental too. Fantail tours should be ashamed of themselves

Response from Host, Apr 2024

We sincerely apologize for the discomfort and inconvenience you experienced during your transportation with us. It deeply concerns us to learn about the conditions you encountered, and we understand how it impacted your overall experience. Your feedback is invaluable to us, and we will take immediate steps to address the issues you raised, particularly concerning the condition and suitability of the transportation vehicles. Ensuring the comfort and safety of our guests is of utmost importance to us, and we regret that we fell short of meeting your expectations in this regard. We greatly appreciate your kind words about our guide, Steffan, and the tour sites. It is heartening to know that despite the transportation challenges, you found other aspects of your experience enjoyable. Please know that we are committed to making necessary improvements to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. Your feedback will serve as a catalyst for us to enhance our services and ensure that all our guests have a positive and comfortable experience with us. Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience caused and appreciate your understanding. We hope to have the opportunity to welcome you back in the future and provide you with the exceptional experience you deserve.

Epic Day in Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula!

Peter_E, Apr 2024

Dunedin was charming and quaint. You felt like you were in Scotland. The Otago Peninsula and Opera Penguin Preserve was a real gem. Teresa, our guide was attentive, knowledgeable, friendly and super helpful. It felt like we had an old friend show us all the must see sights in one very full day. We would highly recommend this tour !

Response from Host, Apr 2024

Thank you for your feedback. We are very happy to hear you loved your visit in Dunedin and especially OPERA Penguin Tour. We will pass your kind words onto Teresa.

Great Tour, highly recommend!

Ian_C, Apr 2024

Teresa was our guide and she was excellent. Really informative tour, bottled water handed out Took us to some great sites and the penguin tour was excellent. Highly recommend!

Response from Host, Apr 2024

Thank you for your feedback. We are really happy to hear you had a good time on our tour with Teresa. We will pass it on to her. Great to hear you found it helpful to have bottled water that we provide on all of our tours.

Amazing

Diane_W, Feb 2024

Teresa was a fantastic driver and guide-she thought of everything to make us comfortable-from microfiber cloth to clean the windows to gingers for motion sickness to wet wipes, tissues and extra bags for shopping. She also wove us souvenirs! The sights were amazing, with plenty of time for photos. Her knowledge of and passion for the area was contagious. We really enjoyed the penguins. And the history of the area was fascinating.

Response from Host, Feb 2024

Thank you for your feedback. It is lovely to hear how much you enjoyed the tour with Teresa. Glad to hear you liked viewing penguins.

Excellent tour that covers almost everything in Dunedin

Daniel_L, Feb 2024

Teresa is fantastic. She is an amazing guide, articulate clearly with great informative sharing. There are so many things covered in this tour, all of great value in my opinion. Transport is a mini-bus that comfortably fits all passengers. I also had to rush off to another tour after this tour. Teresa (and shoutout to Esther too) not only ensured that I reach back on time, she even dropped me off at the tour location saving me a 10 min walk. Thanks for such a wonderful time! Dunedin is such a lovely place!

Response from Host, Feb 2024

Thank you, Daniel. We are very happy to hear you enjoyed our tour that offers a nice introduction to our gorgeous area! We treat our customers as our friends or family and if it is possible we always offer an extra lift or drop off to offer a better experience while in Dunedin. Glad to hear you enjoyed Teresa's guiding. We will pass it onto her.

Don't bother

Jill_A, Nov 2023

There were no pictures to share because there were no penguins! End of story. A very big disappointment. What more can I say.

Response from Host, Nov 2023

Thank you for your feedback. Sorry to hear your disappointment. Yellow Eyed Penguins are the most endangered penguins in the world. There are very few of them left and on a tour you are most likely to see only a few of them, or sometimes it can happen that you see even none. At the moment Yellow Eyed Penguins are nesting, so it is a big chance to see them returning to feed their chicks at any time of the day. You should have seen a nesting bird in the distance, although hard to take good photos, there were some little blue penguins to view in their nests from very close by. Unfortunately, wildlife viewing is unpredictable and it is important to note that visitors who book this tour should not expect to see hundreds of penguins, just a few and it is hard to take good photos from the distance. At times when injured or malnourished penguins are recovering at the rehabilitation area, photo opportunities are excellent, as you can see them from very close by. Penguins remain in the rehab centre as little as possible and are released into the wild as soon as they ready. By joining this tour you learn all about these most endangered penguins, the challenges they face, visit their habitat and mostly important support this conservation project that the reserve is doing to prevent these endangered birds from extinction.

Highly recommended tour and operator

JaimeRemigioFung_A, Apr 2023

Asta- Excellent professional and knowledgeable guide. Cater to every need we asked for from stopping for a cup of coffee to feeding our daughter and to the best spot for stunning photos. Penguin reserve is a must-visit place.

Response from Host, Apr 2023

Thank you for your feedback. Very happy to hear you enjoyed our tour. It was lovely meeting you and your family.

Good views and wildlife

Anne_C, Apr 2023

Very informative trip around Dunedin and loved the penguin sanctuary, they are so passionate about their cause. The buses used are fine, BUT the back seat row has less legroom and no suspension. So not good if your large ( we aren't , but we had to swap with another couple who were) or have a bad back, otherwise 5 stars

Response from Host, Apr 2023

Thank you for your feedback. It is nice to hear you enjoyed visiting Penguin Reserve and our tour guide's knowledge. It seems that seats of our minibuses are not very suitable for large people. We will be looking into better options of the vehicles with larger seats for the next season.

Do yourself a favor and book this thru another company

James_T, Apr 2023

This tour is offered by several different tour companies, please book another tour company. While the stops on the tour were very nice, this tour company rents their vans. They rent the cheapest,most ramshakle vans they can find because they are cheap. We had 14 people in a 13 seat van with 1 child seat, so the 14th person got it. The van has very low window tops, so you cannot see the second floor of a building. It was quite cold, and with 15 people in the van the windows all fogged up. The van had NO heat, and the fan was 2 speeds, off or high. We were all glad when we could get off of the van, as it was VERY tight seating. The places we visited were all very good and I would recommend them to anyone, just not using this tour company. I am going to try to get a partial refund from Viator.

Response from Host, Apr 2023

Thank you for your feedback. Our small group vans are mostly Toyota Hiace 12 or 14 seaters, sometimes Meredes Sprinter 19 seaters. Smaller vans allow you to travel narrow, more scenic roads where bigger buses or coaches cannot go and it takes faster to load or unload the vehicle to be more efficient with the time. For elevated views you are better off traveling on big coaches, the windows are bigger, you sit higher up but you are limited which road the coach can take and it takes twice as long to load or unload the bus which means you see less of our gorgeous area. All the vehicles we use, have loading certificates for 11 or 13 adults to carry, there are no children seats, they are all adult seats. There are lots of local tour operators using the same type of vehicles for small groups. But thank you for sharing your feedback, we will take it as an opportunity to improve while choosing vehicles for the next season.

Dunedin

Timothy_L, Mar 2023

Alda the tour guide. Refreshing and funny. The sites were wonderful and each was peppered with facts from our guide that brought it all to life.

Response from Host, Mar 2023

Thank you

Thoroughly consider your decision

Karen_I, Mar 2023

It was not the time to view the penguins onshore. We only got to see the ones in hospital enclosures and a walk thru the trenches the company made to the beach. A short introductory was made by a very cheerful rep but it should be highlighted in the tour offering that at certain times you will NOT see penguins except in close captivity, which can be done at zoo. The balance of tour was too broad and fast paced altho with a very personable guide Thumbs down due to high cost.

Response from Host, Mar 2023

Thank you for your feedback. Sorry to hear your disappointment. Penguin Place - a privately owned reserve is not a zoo, it is a place where these endangered penguins get help, if they are injured or malnourished they come into a rehab centre for a short time till they are ready to be released into the wild. The numbers of Yellow Eyed Penguins have been declining significantly over the last 10 years and they are the rarest penguins in the world with very few of them left on the mainland of South Island. It is true that the penguin viewing in the wild (in the reserve) is not guaranteed unless the penguins molt and cannot leave the land for several weeks or they happen to have chicks on their nests and return feeding them at any time during the day. It is important to know for our visitors considering joining this tour that you will not see hundreds of Yellow Eyed Penguins, only very few or sometimes even none. But you will learn about the challenges these birds are facing and what the reserve is doing to stop them from going extinct.

Highly recommend. Great...

johnkorzinski, Mar 2023

Highly recommend. Great tour guide - very informative and knowledgeable. Scenery was beautiful and we really enjoyed the penguin reserve.

Response from Host, Mar 2023

Thank you for your feedback. So lovely to hear you enjoyed the tour and especially Penguin Reserve

Very good value

RICHARD_M, Mar 2023

Trip was a fabulous guide! Knowledgeable, friendly and flexible. She took us to all kinds of sights that added immensely to the basic tour.

Response from Host, Mar 2023

thank you.

Penguin Reserve Tour

Tiiu_N, Feb 2023

We had a rocky start as the bus-driver did not come to the information center at the Octagon to pick us up (as requested) and had started the tour only with the cruzship passangers and without us. We had to call the tour-operator multiple times and then finally he came, so we missed part of the city tour. The drive to the Penguin Reserve was scenic, but the Bus was pretty old which made the ride very bumpy. We definately would have appreciated a better newer Bus.

Response from Host, Feb 2023

Thank you for your feedback. We have been very busy this season with big number of visitors coming back and on cruise ship days our tours depart from Port Chalmers to accommodate cruise ship passengers. We are very sorry we misunderstood you were an independent traveler departing from the city centre. Our tour guide driver picked you up after your call from the city centre. Just to clarify that you didn't miss any city sights, the rest of the group departed the cruise terminal in Port Chalmers and the only extra thing they had was a scenic drive from Port Chalmers to Dunedin City which takes about 20 - 30 minutes. Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy our bus. It sometimes happens we have to use a different vehicle due to unforeseen circumstances. We always try to use a vehicle that has big windows in order to appreciate the scenic area of Dunedin and Otago Peninsula

Location no longer visited by the penguins.

David_W, Feb 2023

Apart from around a dozen penguins in small rehabilitation compounds about 5m square, there was only one penguin observed in the wild at a considerable distance from the hide. I appreciate you cannot guarantee viewing of wildlife, but this is the only place I have ever visited where there has been less than 50+ birds to observe. A complete waste of time and money visiting this non-existent location where the penquins no longer visit (we were advised at the best of times there may be 6 pairs nesting).

Response from Host, Feb 2023

Thank you for your feedback. You are right, there are very few Yellow Eyed Penguin left on the main land of South Island southern coast. Unfortunately, Yellow Eyed Penguin numbers have been declining significantly. They are the rarest penguins in the world and only very few of them left. It is important to us that every visitor booking this tour is not expecting to see hundreds of them, just a few or sometimes even none. By visiting this reserve you not only learn about NZ wildlife and its challenges but also support this incredible conservation project to save Yellow Eyed penguins from extinction. If nothing is done to protect these rare penguins, they might be locally extinct in the next 20 years. Penguin Place, a privately owned reserve is doing a great job by helping injured or malnourished birds to recover until they can be released into the wild again. We offer tour packages that include other wildlife tour options, such a guided tour of albatross colony or wildlife cruise with different wildlife to view such as sea lions, NZ fur seals, Northern Royal Albatross, wading birds, etc.

Excellent way to experience part of New Zealand

Richard_W, Feb 2023

This was a wonderful trip filled with interesting sights and experiences. Our guides were knowledgeable and friendly. We enjoyed touring the botanical gardens and city and then seeing the penguin refuge. We learned and experienced some of the plants and wildlife of New Zealand.

Response from Host, Feb 2023

Thank you. It is very helpful to hear what parts of the tour you enjoyed most, especially when we look into improving itineraries.

A unique experience

Michael_A, Feb 2023

Asta, our guide, made us feel so welcome. She could not do enough to make the experience memorable. On top of this, Asta had a really wide knowledge of Dunedin and the surrounding nature. Her enthusiasm came through in everything she showed us. The highlights we went to gave us a good feel for Dunedin and its history. The penguins were an eye opener. The route taken also gave us fantastic views.

Response from Host, Feb 2023

Thank you for your feedback. So good to hear you enjoyed the tour with us! I really enjoyed the day touring with your group.

Loved the botanical...

Christine_O, Feb 2023

Loved the botanical gardens and the penguins. Not so much the albatross stop. No tour just a lunch stop.

Response from Host, Feb 2023

Thank you for your feedback. It's great to hear you enjoyed a walk in Dunedin Botanic Garden. We include a stroll at upper Dunedin Botanic Garden as it is the oldest NZ botanic garden and a great way to see how well some plants do here, view some NZ native birds.

Teresa’s tour was amazing!

robin_y, Feb 2023

Teresa was very knowledgeable of flora, fauna, geology, culture and history! She politely kept us moving to see many of the highlights of the city and surrounding area. We enjoyed her tour before and after our Penguin experience, and if not in a time pinch due to the cruise departure, would’ve like another couple of hours with her lead.

Response from Host, Feb 2023

Thank you. We are so happy to hear you enjoyed Teresa's guiding and her wealth of knowledge. We will pass your nice feedback onto Teresa.

Disjointed

Keith_H, Feb 2023

The guild was late picking us up at the cruise terminal and during the trip had to leave use which caused an hour delay. During the course of the trip we found out it was three different trips in one tour bus. Our tour was to visit the penguin Reserve. We only saw one baby penguin from a long way away and it could have been anything under the tree. We then went to see the rescued penguins which where in small cages worse than a zoo. We drove for about 4 hours in the bus and only did a total of 100km. All in all it was not worth the money we paid.

Response from Host, Feb 2023

Thank you for your feedback. We are sorry to hear you didn't enjoy the tour. Our guide was held up by road works but was not late for the 10am tour departure even though it felt like everybody was waiting for a long time. Our guides usually meet everyone around 9.30am for 10am departure. Due to major road works the tour guide was held up and only arrived to collect all of the passengers at 9.50am, which gave everybody plenty of time to get on the bus and depart on schedule. In the mean time, another tour guide was there to meet everyone and advise that their tour guide was on her way. Unfortunately the Penguin Place wildlife viewing is out of our control. Wildlife is free to come and go, we cannot guarantee its viewing. Yellow Eyed Penguins kept at the rehabilitation centre were found malnourished or injured in the wild and brought in until they recover and are ready to be released back to the nature. We offer a tour with the same itinerary that includes three different options while on Peninsula: Penguin Place tour, Albatross tour or having free time to explore at Albatross centre. It offers our guests flexibility to choose their preferred wildlife option.