Animal Park, Zoo & Farm
Goat Island Marine Discovery Centre
A short walk from Goat Island beach, this University of Auckland–run centre brings the Te Hāwere-a-Maki Marine Reserve to life through interactive displays, field videos, and hands-on encounters with real sea creatures. Children can peer through microscopes at live animals, pass through a sound corridor where shrimp snapping, kina munching, and whale song fill the air, then head out back to the living aquaria.
LocationTe wāhi
160 Goat Island Road
What it is
The highlight for most kids is the chance to hold a live kina or seastar, and to observe kōura up close — the kind of encounter that tends to spark a lasting interest in the ocean. Group bookings are available for schools, kura, and youth groups, and holiday programmes run during school breaks for families wanting a more structured science-based experience.
The centre suits families with children old enough to engage with interactive exhibits, and the beach and marine reserve right on the doorstep make it easy to turn the visit into a full day out at Leigh.
What other parents say
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).
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.
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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.
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!)
Incredibly interesting, we had pre-booked as a group and were presented with a very informative slide show, with 2 amazing guides.
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