In Dunedin recently I went on a Otago Peninsula Wildlife Tour with Larnach Castle. It is an all day tour from 9am to 6pm & a lot is packed into the day. It commenced with a pickup from the bubbly & friendly tour guide, Coral. She drove us to Larnach Castle & conducted a combination of an overview of the... More

Took the afternoon cruise on Easter Sunday. The all-female crew were absolutely first rate. Very friendly. Great commentary during the cruise. More

We had an enjoyable cruise with Monarch Wildlife Cruises late in the afternoon in early April 2012. What an unexpectedly good trip it turned out to be. Besides the 3 different albatrosses we saw, there was a sea lion and seals and many, many birds. The crew were excellent with a depth of knowledge and skill in manouvring the boat... More

We were lucky enough to be on the Monarch boat trip on the last weekend of March 2012. The morning trip hadn't seen any Albartross. Sean navigated us around and spotted in the distance a 10 kilometer feeding frenzy, our journey began. We were nor disappointed, we saw all the species and loads of them. It was clearly a good... More

My mum and I took a 4-hour Monarch cruise that took us out around Taiaroa Head and then through the Dunedin Harbour. While it was a pleasant and professional experience, I would not do the same cruise again. Our day began with a courtesy pickup from our accommodation (excellent, thank you), followed by a 45-minute drive with commentary from our... More

A big thank you to Monarch for a fantastic cruise - the very informative and fluent. commentary and the opportunity to see albatrosses, seals and the wealth of wildlife on the Otago Peninsula was a highlight of our holiday ! More

We thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The operators were very informative. I wore the coat and really appreciated it. We saw lots of birds including the huge albatross. We also saw hector dolphins and a seal returning from sea. We saw baby seals basking in the sun. At one stage a huge albatross flew right over the boat. We would highly... More

It is so nice to see so much wildlifes in the Otago Peninsula with Monarch~~~ We've seen so much sea birds, and also the sea seals. They are just everywhere around and you can enjoy the scene with the provided binoculars~ High resolution, high definition! The cruise is a small one but that's enough for everyone to get a good... More

This is one of the best short wildlife experiences we have had. On first sight, Monarch looks a somewhat ramshackle organisation, housed as it is in a rickety wooden shack at the end of a small pier on the Otago Peninsula. At 49NZD for a one hour cruise it may also seem a little expensive but in our opinion it... More