A Melbourne Penguin Tour without Leaving the City!

Did you know that you can go on a Melbourne penguin tour right in the heart of the CBD? SEA LIFE Melbourne’s Penguin Passport experience is your ticket to get up close and personal with TWO species of these much loved creatures without having to step outside of the city. It’s a once in a lifetime experience! Here are our top reasons why we think this experience is the best penguin encounter Melbourne has to offer…

 

Skip the Travel Time

There’s no need to take a 4 hour return trip out to Phillip Island for a penguin tour when our penguin encounter is right in the middle of Melbourne city. A 75 minute immersive experience, Penguin Passport allows the perfect amount of time to learn about our penguin colony, get onto the ice and up close to them AND still have your day free for more fun activities. Choose to explore around Melbourne on your day out or discover more of what SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium has to offer. Conveniently, your Penguin Passport ticket also includes all day access to our aquarium.

 

Meet More Species

A trip to Phillip Island for a penguin tour will give you the chance to see the Little Penguin species that is native to Australia and New Zealand. At SEA LIFE Melbourne, you’ll get to meet two species of penguins found only in the sub-Antarctic region including the Falkland Islands and Antarctica itself - The regal King Penguin with their bright yellow chests and the Gentoo Penguin famous for their cheeky personalities.

The King Penguin
King Penguins are the second largest of all the penguin species reaching to almost one meter tall, that's the average height of a 3 year old boy! Famous for their tall, stately appearance, they breed in colonies of THOUSANDS making breeding season in the wild quite a sight to see. While searching for food, the King Penguin has to be on the lookout as they tend to find themselves on the favourite dinner menu for hungry Leopard Seals and Killer Whales.

The Gentoo Penguin
Most penguins swim underwater at around 6-12 kilometers per hour, but the Gentoo is the fastest of the species and can reach top speeds of up to 36 kilometers per hour! They are mostly monogamous creatures that collect grass, debris and rocks to build a nest and entice their perfect mate. You can experience their speed first hand at SEA LIFE Melbourne as the leap from the ice into the water.

Both the King and Gentoo Penguins set a great example for co-parenting by talking turns incubating the egg while the other heads to sea to find food. Perhaps we humans could learn a thing or two from these penguins?

Get Up Close

During your SEA LIFE Melbourne penguin encounter you will rug up in your sub-Antarctic snow gear and go out on the ice with our colony, getting closer than you ever imagined possible to these much-loved creatures. Not only will you see them jumping in and out of the water, swimming and playing and sliding round having fun on the ice, but you will also get to see the inner workings of our aquarium and how our extremely special, sub-zero habitat is maintained.

 

Are you keen to go on a penguin encounter in Melbourne’s CBD? Find out more about Penguin Passport below.