It took more than 12,000km to get here, but it was worth the trip for Andrew Jeffs.
Fascinated with penguins all his life, Andrew, 12, has lived in a land-locked state far from the sea, making his chances of seeing a penguin remote at best.
But thanks to Make-a-Wish International, that dream became a reality at the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital yesterday.
The Utah native has the life-threatening Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and is likely to end up in hospital with a serious injury before he turns 30.
A highlight of the visit for him was seeing a 6-day-old chick being fed.
He recalled believing he was a penguin when he was younger.
"I thought I was a penguin and my mum stole me one day and she fed me milk and I became a human and I was so angry at her."
Before his trip, he had never heard of Dunedin, but had thoroughly enjoyed his time here, going to the beach, Otago Peninsula and visiting alpacas.
Andrew’s mother, Sarah Jeffs, said it had been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for him that they would have never been able to provide.
"It’s been very unique," she said.
"This is something he will never forget."
Wildlife Hospital general manager Suzanne Stephenson said Andrew’s visit was timed perfectly for him to see the hoiho chicks being hand-reared and treated for diseases before being released back to the wild.
The hospital provided care for chicks that were one or two days old and weighed about 100g — some of which were still in their eggs.
Last year, the hospital cared for 235 hoiho, including 186 chicks.
