Happy feet? Penguin steps ashore far from home

A young penguin apparently took a wrong turn while swimming near Antarctica and endured a 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) journey to New Zealand, the first time in 44 years that one of the creatures has been sighted here in the wild.

Christine Wilton was walking her dog Monday when she discovered the black-and-white bird.

"It was out-of-this-world to see it," she said. "Like someone just dropped it from the sky."

Wilton said the scene on Peka Peka Beach reminded her of the 2006 movie "Happy Feet," in which a young penguin finds himself stranded far from home.

The bird "was totally in the wrong place," she said.

Estimated to be about 10 months old and 32 inches (80 centimetres) tall, the Emperor penguin was probably born during the last Antarctic winter and may have been searching for squid and krill when it got lost, experts said.

Emperors are the tallest and largest species of penguin. They can grow up to 4 feet (122 centimetres) tall and weigh more than 75 pounds (34 kilograms).

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