what’s it like on a petrel station tour?
Tutukaka, New Zealand
The Petrel Station seabird tours are a fantastic opportunity to spend a full day on the ocean and enjoy seeing a great diversity of pelagic seabird species at one of the world’s best seabird hotspots – a unique and very memorable birdwatching experience.
on the day…
We usually depart Tutukaka marina at sunrise and we’re out on the water for the next 9 to 10 hours, which gives us a fantastic amount of time to enjoy the stunning seabirds.
It takes around 1.5 to 2 hours to get out to The Petrel Station location on the shelf edge, approx 40km offshore. Along the way we pass through 3 different habitat zones: shallower waters, the islands, and then the deeper ocean out at the shelf edge. Each zone has it’s own range of seabirds and birding experiences.
On the way out we pass the stunning Poor Knights Islands, an important seabird breeding area (for summer & winter breeding species). In spring and early summer we’ll often encounter huge feeding workups of 10,000+ seabirds – a remarkable sight, sound and smell.
When we arrive at the shelf edge we’ll get set up and we stay out there for around 4 hours and experience a good diversity of seabird species – this is the zone where local seabirds feed, and vagrant seabirds pass along, and it’s generally where we encounter most of the rarer / scarcer seabird species.
When we finish out at the shelf edge, we’ll make our way back towards Tutukaka, and may do a detour back to the islands to visit the local Gannet colony, and in summer we’ll go and check out the Grey Noddy which come and hang out for 4 or so months.
We usually get back into Tutukaka harbour in the late afternoon after a full day of birdwatching in one of the best seabird birding locations in New Zealand.
What seabirds will we see?
On the day we usually encounter a good diversity of pelagic seabird species and they’re often really close to the boat.
This could include Petrel, Shearwater, Prion, Albatross, Storm Petrel, Skua and other seabird species. Naturally there’s no guarantee on what seabird species will be present (as it depends on the season, migrations etc) but that’s part of the excitement.
You can find out more about the seabird species we’ve seen so far on the birding tours and when they’re most likely to be around on the Seabird Sightings page, and also check out what the various Seasons are like for different birdwatching opportunities. There’s also loads of Trip Reports from past seabird tours out to The Petrel Station, which give a great insight into what’s been seen at various times throughout the year.
conditions on the day
The seabird tours are an open ocean adventurous activity, and we could encounter a variety of ocean and weather conditions on any given tour. Be sure to check out the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page for details about: ‘Ocean and weather conditions on the day’, ‘Is the tour suitable for everyone?’, ‘Stability and general fitness requirements’ and other general info about the tours.
Does being out amongst stunning seabirds sound like you? Must be time to come out to The Petrel Station.
charter trips
Ideal for a bunch of birding mates, birdwatching tour groups, photography clubs etc to have your own stunning New Zealand seabird experience out at The Petrel Station ... and every tour helps towards the research.