Spotting Seals at the Red Rocks Walk in Wellington

Did you know that a 15-minute drive out of Wellington can take you to a beautiful coastal walk where you’ll find 200 million years of old red rocks and spot a lot of seals? New Zealand is just amazing.

Hiking to the red rocks is a great way to spend half a day in Wellington, and we feel it’s only right to dedicate a full blog post to this amazing little coastal walk.

In this blog post, we’ll give you all the necessary information about how to get to the Red Rocks from Wellington, information about the coastal walk, where to find the seals, and how to behave around them. And then we’ll of course share our own experience from the red rocks walk.

How to get to the Red Rocks from Wellington?

First of all, you need some kind of ride to take you to the trailhead. So here are your 3 options to get to the Red Rocks Walk from Wellington.

By car

The drive from Wellington city center to the trailhead of the Red Rocks Walk is only about 15 minutes, and you can take the route along the coast for some beautiful views. The Red Rocks trailhead starts in Owhiro Bay, and you will find free parking and toilets at Te Kopahou Visitor Centre.

Most people park their car at the visitor centre and do the hike by foot. However, some people take their car onto the track. But don’t do this unless you have a good 4WD – or else you’ll get stuck. Our little plum (purple city car) wouldn’t be able to go on this road that’s for sure!

Also, the hike is SO beautiful! So why not just do the hike the way it should be done and leave the car behind?

By bus

Even if you don’t have a vehicle to take you, you can easily still get there – just take the bus from Wellington to the Red Rocks Walk. Bus number 29 leaves from several places in Wellington city center and arrives at Owhiro bay at Happy Valley Road bus stop. From here you just walk a small kilometer and you’ll reach Te Kopahou Visitor Centre and the trailhead of Red Rocks walk.

The bus from Wellington to Owhiro bay takes about 40 minutes. So your total estimated time from Wellington to the Red Rocks walk is 50 minutes or a small hour.

By bike

During the hike we saw some mountain bikers on the way. So you can also just hop on your mountain bike and ride from Wellington to the Red Rocks. The shortest way from Wellington to the trailhead is 10 kilometers.

How long does the hike take?

The walk from the parking lot to the Red Rocks took us about 1 hour, and then it took an additional 30 minutes to the Wellington seal colony at Sinclair Head.

We walked the same way back, so in total we spent 3 hours on the trail. You can easily do this hike faster, but me and Glenn are always a bit slow because we’re filming and taking pictures on the way.

Also, put some extra time aside to enjoy a lunch while doing some seal spotting at Sinclair Head.

How to behave around the seals at Red Rocks

I think we can all agree that seals are super cute! However, they are wild animals, and it’s important to behave well around them.

We’re sick and tired of watching humans destroy nature and wildlife, so here are a few tips about how to behave around the seals at Red Rocks and Sinclair Head in Wellington.

First of all, please keep your distance.

Don’t try to go close to the seals. Seriously, they can get quite aggressive if they feel scared or intimidated. And why make them feel that way in the first place? I mean, the rocks and the sea are their home, and you’re the intruder. So just watch them from a safe distance.

Along the walk, we saw signs about how to act around seals. I think the most important rule we found was, “Never come between the seal and the ocean”.

The ocean is the seal’s escape route, if you block it, it might get aggressive. So please, just keep your distance from the beach, and both you and the seal will have a good time.

And lastly, of course you shouldn’t try to feed them or anything like that. I’ve seen so many humans try to feed wild animals, and while it might feel like a great experience, it’s really not good for the eco-system. The seals can catch their own fishies, mate.

Our experience on the Red Rocks Coastal Walk

It was a beautiful sunny day in December when we decided to go for a hike. My sister (who lives in Wellington) suggested that we should walk to the Red Rocks and watch some seals.

As soon as she mentioned seals, we were sold.

The hike along the coast begins

The Red Rocks Walk runs along the coast, so we were literally walking on the beach next to the ocean for the whole hike.

It was nice to breathe in the fresh air blowing in from the sea. And luckily for us, the weather wasn’t too windy that day. I mean, it’s no news that Wellington is known for being the windiest city on earth.

Walking alongside the beach was fun because we found peculiar things on the way.

I was wondering what all these big lumps of black rubber were, and I instantly got mad by the thought of someone throwing rubber on the beach. Then I realized that it was the biggest lump of seaweed I’d ever seen in my life!

Seriously, the seaweed along the Red Rocks walk are just enormous. Some pieces were even bigger than my whole upper body.

On the coastal walk you have the ocean on one side and some big hills on the other side. We saw signs pointing at hiking trails in the hills, and you can probably find some pretty neat viewpoints up there. So for our next visit to Wellington, we’ll have to go up the hills for a nice viewpoint of the sea and the red rocks.

But for now, the hike in the hills must be for another time.

After following the coast for about half an hour, we spotted our first seal! It was sunbathing on a rock in the ocean.

Being completely caught up in the moment, we forgot to take a picture of it. The seal didn’t move at all and it was quite far away. We imagine that it was happily sleeping in the sun.

So keep your eyes open during the Red Rocks walk, you might spot some seals sleeping on random rocks in the ocean.

Made it to the Red Rocks Reserve

We continued the walk, and after about an hour of hiking, we made it to the Red Rocks reserve.

You can clearly see why they’re called Red Rocks, and you will instantly know once you reach them. How can you tell? Well, you see a bunch of red rocks. Simple as that.

We found that the Red Rocks were very interesting because they’re completely different from the rest of the scenery. It’s a very nice spot to stop and take some pictures.

And apparently, the Red Rocks are more than 200 million years old! Cool, right?

The Red Rocks are also important to the Māori history and they go under the name “Pariwhero”. Two legends are told about how the rocks got their red color.

In the first myth, Kupe the Explorer cut his hand on shellfish and colored the rocks red with his blood. The second myth speaks of Kupe’s daughters who cut themselves on the rocks because they were missing their father – coloring the rocks red with their blood.

It’s without a doubt a very unique place.

And while we were enjoying the different red rock formations, we looked intensely to try and spot a seal, but we didn’t have any luck. Consequently, we couldn’t head back to Wellington yet. We just had to see some more seals!

So we made the decision to walk further than the Red Rocks, towards the Sinclair Head, which is where the Wellington seal colony is known to make camp.

The Wellington seal colony at Sinclair Head

So we continued our walk for about half an hour to the Sinclair Head. After entering the pass by walking through some sort of rock gate named “Devil’s gate”, we made it to a place FULL of rocks and big boulders in the ocean.

It must be here! We frantically looked around but didn’t spot any seals.

After walking for about 1,5 hour in the sun, I could feel my energy level started to drop, and we all know what that means… Get some food in me or run away as fast as you can! .. My point being, always bring some snacks on a hike to keep the mood high.

The Sinclair Head was honestly the perfect place to enjoy a lunch. There are so many big rocks you can camp on, and while you eat, you can try to spot some seals.

And that’s exactly what we did.

All of a sudden, Glenn spotted a seal that was playing around in the ocean! Then it went towards a rock, and started to make its way up, by only using its belly. That’s when we realized that seals are actually funny creatures!

They have no legs or arms, only two flippers and a tail. So they have to move by jumping around on their belly. It looks hilarious! We also think they quite resemble to dogs somehow, we saw a seal trying to scratch its head with its tail and flippers. What a funny character!

We looked the species up, and apparently they are called fur seals, and they are more related to sea lions than any other kind of seal species.

Then, all of a sudden, we saw another one! We couldn’t believe our luck.

So we actually ended up spending a small hour at the Sinclair Head just to watch the seals.

My day was fulfilled! I felt so happy watching these funny animals just enjoying their life in the wild. This is definitely the best way to see seals! We love these kind of wildlife experiences.

Returning to Wellington from the walk

After spending some time with the seals, we decided it was time to return to Wellington and end our day at the Red Rocks Walk.

We made it back to the car, which had been standing in the sun all day and was what felt like 100 degrees hot inside, then we drove back to my sister in Wellington to share our seal stories.

It was honestly such a lovely day – and we totally recommend Red Rocks to anyone looking for a short day hike and a great wildlife experience close to Wellington.

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Have you been on the Red Rocks Walk in Wellington, and did you spot any seals? Please share your experience in the comments, or let me know if you have any questions about the hike. Thanks for reading and happy travels!

First time in New Zealand? Read this: Great things New Zealand is famous for.

Or check out our other hiking blog posts from New Zealand:

• Hiking Tongariro Alpine Crossing
• Hiking Franz Josef Glacier Walk
• Hiking Hooker Valley Track
• Hiking Roy’s Peak