February 10th 2026: Wild living

Along the Otago coastline this time of year we start seeing a heap of female sea lions and their pups moving around the city's beaches (and sometimes parks and roads) as they begin their slow travel toward the more secluded beaches of the Otago Peninsula. 

Pupping is over and the nearly two-month-old pups, which are super cute and mobile, are hopeless on roads. If you park at a beach where they frequent, then check under your car before driving away – the pups sometimes fall asleep in the shade of your vehicle. 

This also means a lot of the tracks to our beaches get blocked by sea lions rollicking around and hanging out. In most cases, you can use another track to get to the waves or wait until they move off. We had to do this a bit this past week. 

The good news is that they will soon be shuffling around up the peninsula where the mums creche up their pups for March and into April. You may still stumble across them, but the "silly season" is nearing an end for the city beaches. 

I've heard of lots of encounters with male sea lions in the lineup this past month. Mostly, they're doing laps in the shallows, hoping to come across a female, and are not too interested in surfers. If you do come upon a curious one – usually a younger sea lion, then remember they are like dogs: if you squeal and splash around as you paddle off, then they'll take that as an invite to play. Be boring, but enjoy the moments – it will actually be a highlight of your surf. 

Mr Mochi, a visiting male southern elephant seal, has been around as well – I haven't heard of any interactions with surfers in the water, but he's a complete comedian on land. He certainly makes me laugh with his antics. 

It's pretty cool to be living in a city that has this kind of wildlife on its beaches.

See you at the beach, Derek

PS During our mega family road trip to Gisborne this summer, I was lucky enough to get to spend some time with Chris and Dean Savage, the owners of Dive Tatapouri, and their fleet of wild stingrays. My job was to capture a bunch of images for The Guardian that showed what it was like to get up close with wild stingrays during a reef ecology tour. The stingrays loved my camera. Stevie Ray couldn't get enough of his own reflection, and Biscuit nearly bowled me completely over. I was surprised how intelligent they were – each stingray had a personality of their own, much like our sea lions. You can read the full story on The Guardian here.