Goat Island Marine Discovery Centre

Beautiful beach! Perfect for a day trip. Bring a snorkeling kit or hire a kit/transparent canoe. Really good marine life that you are able to get close up to.

Lots of fun for a family with an 8-year old. The staff were amazing, taking time to show us the microscope and develop our knowledge of the various sea life. Touch pool was fun also. Reasonably priced and worth spending an hour if your near Leigh. Very limited parking - we parked at the Goat Island reserve site and walked 3 mins to the centre.

confining an octopus to a tiny glass box is horrendous, they are highly intelligent creatures, they have the same intelligence as a dog or a three year old child, they are not a slug. they are shy solitary creatures, and should not be on display in glaring light with nowhere to hide from the unwanted constant attention. we have emailed the discovery centre about this and they never even bothered to reply. there is growing international recognition of the cruelty of confining octopus, NZ lagging behind as usual.

NiceWonderful experienceThe lady was highly welcoming tooThanks for a pleasant experience

Perfect place for snorkeling in clear water and having big snapper swim along side you.

The discovery centre is really cool. They have interactive exhibits and a tank where you can get to see marine life up close! The building sits right off the ocean as well, so the scenery is beautiful. Makes for a very fun and educational afternoon.

Interesting and interactive exhibition for all ages. Worth the trip!

It’s cool but I’d like a small tour of the research facility or more creatures?My child loved the microscopes. As someone with ADHD it was a bit of a reading overload and a lot of crossover audio. I loved the amount of seating availability (so much that once my overstimulated brain made me fall asleep on the couch!) the person working was super passionate and friendly (a fellow American, go banana slugs!) the parking is a bit inconvenient as my mobility isn’t the best but it’s still a cool spot to check out and learn. I particularly loved the little snippets from PHD candidates and their projects, and the focus on women in science! Hope to see this place develop more (I’d love guided dives or to be involved in citizen science projects!)

We spent a good hour at the discovery centre and enjoyed ourselves tremendously. The staff were very knowledgeable and good with the kids.The highlights were the microscope where we got to see live sea creatures magnified on a big screen, we got to touch creatures in their touch and feel pool, and my daughter got to feed an octopus.I would recommend this if you have kids, it was great fun...(and reasonably priced).

There had been a cyclone in the region when I visited 4 years ago so the waters were too choppy and swirling with particulates to see anything while snorkeling.