Red Rocks Seal Colony

Last weekend Helen, Harry and I made the most of a sunny winter Saturday. We went to look at a seal colony that someone at work had mentioned to me.


The colony is on the coastline just to the south of Wellington. It's accessible by an easy walk of about an hour from the end of the road. As it was a clear day and the trail was right on the southern tip of the North Island, we were able to see snow capped mountains on the South Island on the horizon.

Path to the seal colony, with the South Island mountains

View back along the coastline towards Wellington Airport

The route passes a collection of naturally red rocks in the shallows, inventively called the Red Rocks. There are several Māori legends about Kupe associated with the colour of the rocks. We were passing the rocks in the afternoon and so unfortunately they were mostly in the shadow of the headland and it was hard to capture the colour.

We then made it to the colony itself. A few sites I'd read online before we set off told me that the colony is made up of young males who hadn't managed to find mates. The first thing that struck me as we got close was the powerful smell of rotting fish, so maybe that's what is putting the female seals off these guys. Initially it was easy to miss the seals as they were mostly lazing motionless on rocks. After a few moments we started to spot more and more of them in the water and all around. 

Play fighting in the water

Looks like a tough lifestyle

'Watcha taking a photo of me for then?'