Royal Albatross Centre — Attraction in South Island

Loved it!

In the interest of transparency, my wife and I actually won a double pass for the Albatross Classic Guided Tour, so we didn't pay. I've lived here for over 40 years, and had never visited, I don't know why, just never got around to it. Anyway, having experienced the entry level Classic tour, I'm super keen to go back and do one of the bigger tour packages. I Definitely want to do the "Triple Crown Combo" with the Albatross, Wildlife Cruise, and Yellow-Eye Penguin. It genuinely looks like a great value experience.

But, how was our tour? Really great, thanks for asking. Rose was our tour guide and she was so good. Super knowledgeable, excellent delivery, great interaction with the group, and clearly cares and believes in what the Royal Albatross Centre and associated groups are doing. I found the pre-tour info and short video really interesting. Learned a heap of stuff. If Rose's boss reads this, Rose needs a pat on the back, she's wonderful.

The Albatross are majestic, and it's a privilege to get to see them nesting, looking after their chicks, and flying around their neighbourhood. The viewing building is a short walk up the hill from the main building, I'm a very out of shape dude, but managed the hill with no trouble. The day we were there we were able to see four nests, and there were two or three Albatross playing in the stiff sea-breeze. There was plenty of room for our group members to find a vantage point, and we got a pretty decent amount of time there to watch, and take photos/video. There are binoculars provided.

Back in the main building, there's a café with some pretty great looking and great smelling food. I think we'll arrive early next time so we can grab lunch there first. There's also a great wee gift shop with a ton of the usual suspects, postcards, fridge magnets, etc. But also a bunch of very cool art and crafts. I feel like a lot of these are local, but not 100% certain. however, I am certain there's a lot of nice stuff, and something for all budgets.

We'll be...

Suggestion upfront: I would rather have a look through the shop and information area to gather any interesting information about the wildlife. Afterwards go for a walk around "The Mole" in Aramoana, at best with binoculars. There you can even see Orcas and other wildlife when you are lucky. Or do whale watching in Kaikoura, where you see much more wildlife with extremely professional guides. You are also very likely to see Albatross flying around.

Now some words on the experience: I have visited the Royal Albatross Centre in Dunedin twice now. I was so impressed from my first visit a couple of years ago that I had to go again this year to share it with my fiancé this time. Unfortunately the tour was extremely unprofessional. Our guide spoke unclearly and mumbled - impossible for foreigners to understand, even when having good English-skills - and she even continued to do so after indication that she is hard to understand. All information given during the tour was already displayed in the visitor centre at the entrance. In the small hut, hardly any information have been given by the guide - she only waited for the next group to arrive so that she could end her tour. The tour ended abruptly after arriving back in the shop area - without any ending words from the guide.

After the tour we expressed our dissatisfaction (politely) in person and also via email, comparing both tours that I have experienced. Both has been ignored by the staff. It is very sad to see the poor development of the former fabulous Royal Albatross Centre. I am very sure that the employees do a great job for the wildlife, but ticket prices are nowhere near to a good relation to the experience you receive during the tour.

Therefore I unfortunately cannot recommend the tours anymore, unless we were just very unlucky with our guide. But the ignorance of any feedback also left a bad impression of the overall customer...

I personally would have given this two marks out of five, but my partner's a bit more generous than I am, so I'm going with 3 stars out of five. The reason for this mark is because it was so disappointing. You want to have the opportunity to see these magnificent birds up close and to really get an insight into them. There was some nice information regarding the birds which was interesting, but let's be frank anyone can look information on the internet. So what you're really coming on this tour for is to get to see the birds in action up close. And that's really what you're paying for. Everything else is if we're being honest, just padding, filling out the time to justify the entrance fee (which isn't cheap). And that's the big problem. When you finally go to see the birds walking up the hill with your anticipation building, you then face a massive anticlimax as your led I to a hut with a glass window, about 40 metres away from the birds, and you realise that this is as close as you're going to be able to get. Because of the glass and the lack of room at the front, you don't even come out of the experience with a chance to get a decent photograph of the birds. And half an hour after entering the room, the overwhelming feeling is 'was that it'??? Something for the centre to work on as I'm sure that there are better ways to allow the public to see the birds up close and provide them with chances to photograph them, whilst making sure to respect thr birds space.

It's either that or be more up front about the experience and adjust your prices...