The pavlova and Crowded House of the Subantarctics, Australia has staked its claim on this geographically New Zealand island too.
The only place in the world where royal penguins breed, you’ll never forget visiting this raucous ‘Penguin City’ or Zodiac cruising one of the world’s largest penguin populations. It’s standing room only for the hundreds of thousands of regal king penguins, nesting defiantly around the ruins of Joseph Hatch’s animal-oil-extracting digesters that decimated the local elephant seal and penguin populations.
Take in the aquatic ballet of these script-flipping birds as they crowd your Zodiac to check you out checking them out. The wildlife here is fearless.
Sit down and penguins will waddle over and give you a cheeky peck while ridiculously cute weaners (older elephant seal pups) will caterpillar over and try to climb on top of you while you’re busy trying to compute how the hell they turn into the flatulent, blubbery huddles jousting in front of you. Bragging rights: Your ‘weaner lap dance’ story will never get old