Roger and Margaret Baillie said the rare sea lion came up a beach track on to their Riverton Rocks Highway property on Tuesday and explored several snug snoozing spots.
"Next thing, Roger went back down [stairs] to the garage and it was in the garage trying to eat my bike," she said.
After being chased out of the garage and having a brief siesta in the road, things took a more serious turn when the visitor made its way back to the home’s front door.
It was first spotted spying through the entrance’s glass side panels, but then shifted its focus to attempting to force its way through the closed door.
Mrs Baillie said she was amazed at the force it was using on the door, as the solid door was bowing under its weight.
"We were quite frightened because of the two glass panels ... the way he was thumping against it.
"We were holding the door, but the way he was pushing."
After a good night’s sleep underneath a trailer on their front lawn, banging on an empty paint tin proved too much for the free-loading guest.
Mr Baillie escorted it down the road back to the beach yesterday morning.
He said he first saw the sea lion about two weeks ago.
When he arrived home on Tuesday, nearby builders warned him it had relocated to their property.
In a letter to Mr Baillie, Invercargill biodiversity officer Lance Hay said the sea lion was one of the world’s rarest fin-footed mammals species.
About 97% of the less than 10,000 population mainly lived in the Subantarctic Islands. About 31 pups were born on the mainland last season and six of those were born in the Catlins or Southland region.
- By Toni McDonald
