{"id":322032,"date":"2025-12-02T04:57:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T04:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/322032\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T04:57:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T04:57:17","slug":"new-zealand-pub-staff-stunned-as-surprise-guest-waddles-through-front-doors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/322032\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand pub staff stunned as surprise guest waddles through front doors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Patrons at a New Zealand pub got a bit of an added treat with their dinner when a baby seal decided to run amok in the venue.<\/p>\n<p>CCTV shows the cute little intruder waddle in through the front doors of Sprig and Fern The Meadows, in Richmond on the South Island on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n<p>Staff did all they could to try and corner the furry visitor, but it managed to evade capture as bemused guests watched on.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/9now.nine.com.au\/today\/sign-up-for-the-today-show-newsletter\/57b05181-ffe6-4143-9ddf-54d56d42db7f\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/7ce16070-63aa-42bd-a3ee-448b73a4dc54.png\"   alt=\"TODAY 2023\"\/>Subscribe to the Today newsletter here. (Nine)<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/e98b1d5a-99d9-44de-b740-30892d0186f2.png\"   alt=\"Bella Evans + Daniel Johnsen - Baby seal gatecrashes NZ restaurant Today Show December 2, 2025\"\/>Patrons at a New Zealand pub got a bit of an added treat with their dinner when a baby seal decided to run amok in the venue. (Supplied)<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/9now.nine.com.au\/today\/michelle-pfieffer-streaming-christmas-movie-oh-what-fun-interview\/58584353-8d42-4084-ac35-3749d8318d4d\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Michelle Pfeiffer&#039;s candid admission to Today\">Michelle Pfeiffer&#8217;s candid admission to Today<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was definitely a shock, we thought it was a dog at first when it came through the doors,&#8221; manager \ufeffBella Evans told Today.<\/p>\n<p>The seal seemed to enjoy exploring the venue, even making its way into a bathroom toward the back of the premises to hide behind a toilet.<\/p>\n<p>And Bella confirmed the pub wasn&#8217;t the first populated location the seal had ventured into.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Department of Conservation told us it had visited four venues and we aren&#8217;t actually that close to the beach,&#8221; she said.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/b6f40b88-3a56-4977-bdbd-243ba02fcc26.png\"   alt=\"Bella Evans + Daniel Johnsen - Baby seal gatecrashes NZ restaurant Today Show December 2, 2025\"\/>Staff did all they could to try and corner the furry visitor, but it managed to evade capture as bemused guests watched on.\ufeff (Today)<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/9now.nine.com.au\/today\/oprah-winfrey-touches-down-in-australia-entertainment-news-on-december-2\/62f0d49d-dca7-44d3-86fb-e1b7fab9248d\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Oprah Winfrey touches down in Sydney\">Oprah Winfrey touches down in Sydney<\/a><\/p>\n<p>But with some patience and smart thinking, Bella said they managed to coax it out with a popular item off the menu.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We lured it out with salmon and a dog crate,&#8221; Bella said.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>She said staff affectionately named the seal Fern after one of their popular craft beers and they are keeping the salmon pizza on the menu, should Fern decide to come back and pay them another visit.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>Check out the cute CCTV footage in the video above\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patrons at a New Zealand pub got a bit of an added treat with their dinner when a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-322032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}