It took more than 12,000km to get here, but it was worth the trip for Andrew Jeffs.<\/p>\n
Fascinated with penguins all his life, Andrew, 12, has lived in a land-locked state far from the sea, making his chances of seeing a penguin remote at best.<\/p>\n
But thanks to Make-a-Wish International, that dream became a reality at the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital yesterday.<\/p>\n
The Utah native has the life-threatening Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and is likely to end up in hospital with a serious injury before he turns 30.<\/p>\n
Having wanted to see penguins for as long as he could remember, Andrew and his family were able to interact with hoiho at the hospital, yesterday.<\/p>\n
A highlight of the visit for him was seeing a 6-day-old chick being fed.<\/p>\n
He recalled believing he was a penguin when he was younger.<\/p>\n
“I thought I was a penguin and my mum stole me one day and she fed me milk and I became a human and I was so angry at her.”<\/p>\n
Andrew thought the penguins at the hospital were “beautiful” and “really cool”.<\/p>\n
Before his trip, he had never heard of Dunedin, but had thoroughly enjoyed his time here, going to the beach, Otago Peninsula and visiting alpacas.<\/p>\n
Andrew\u2019s mother, Sarah Jeffs, said it had been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for him that they would have never been able to provide.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s been very unique,” she said.<\/p>\n
“This is something he will never forget.”<\/p>\n
Wildlife Hospital general manager Suzanne Stephenson said Andrew\u2019s visit was timed perfectly for him to see the hoiho chicks being hand-reared and treated for diseases before being released back to the wild.<\/p>\n
The hospital provided care for chicks that were one or two days old and weighed about 100g \u2014 some of which were still in their eggs.<\/p>\n
Last year, the hospital cared for 235 hoiho, including 186 chicks.<\/p>\n