A balmy winter morning in Dunedin was deemed just perfect by a 2m, 150kg leopard seal that sunned itself on a pontoon in the Steamer Basin in the upper harbour yesterday.
Ray White Dunedin employees arrived at work to find the subantarctic creature lying flat on the pontoon, basking in the spring-like conditions.
Saleswoman Julie Ashton said it was a nice surprise for a Monday morning and was just ''gorgeous''.
''You just want to give it a big smooch,'' she said.
Leopard seals were not all that common around Otago but the frequency of sightings had risen from about five a year to an average of 15 since 2009, Department of Conservation biodiversity ranger Jim Fyfe said.
''It's that time of year for them,'' he said.
''Most of our sightings are between about July and the end of November.
''They are vagrants, really. They're sort of wandering this time of the winter.''
Despite a rise in sightings recently, Mr Fyfe said it was the first time he had seen a leopard seal this far into Otago Harbour.
''I wouldn't [usually] expect a leopard seal to be climbing up on to a floating pontoon. The front flippers are a lot shorter [than other seals] so they really have to caterpillar along ...''
While they are not aggressive in nature, getting too close was not advised, Mr Fyfe said.
''Keep well away. There has been a case where a snorkeller was pulled down and drowned, [so] keeping away from them is probably a wise move.''
The leopard seal had ventured back out to sea by 4pm yesterday.
