Wrong turn leads Antarctic penguin to New Zealand

21 June 2011 Last updated at 10:45 GMT Colin Miskelly, from New Zealand's national museum, said it was exceptional to find an emperor penguin so far away from its usual habitat.

A young emperor penguin, normally found in the Antarctic, has turned up on a New Zealand beach.

It is a rare event, the first confirmed sighting of an Emperor penguin in New Zealand in 44 years.

"I saw this glistening white thing standing up and I thought I was seeing things," said Christine Wilton, who found it while walking her dog.

The department of conservation is baffled by how it arrived, saying it may have taken a wrong turn.

"It's amazing to see one of these penguins on the Kapiti coast," says the department's Peter Simpson.

The visitor has attracted crowds of onlookers, who are being advised not to disturb the penguin and keep their dogs on leads.

Conservation experts say the bird is a juvenile, about 10 months old and 32in (80cm) tall.

Emperor penguins are the tallest and largest of all penguin species, growing up to 4ft (122cm) high and weighing more than 75lb (34kg).

Colin Miskelly, a penguin expert at Te Papa, New Zealand's national museum, said the bird was likely born during the last Antarctic winter.

It may have been searching for squid and krill when it took a wrong turn and arrived on New Zealand's North Island.

"Usually they stay among the pack ice," said Mr Miskelly.

"This one just kept going north and it's a very long way from its usual range."

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Blanchett leads Barbican line-up

24 May 2011 Last updated at 11:25 GMT Cate Blanchett will star in Gross und Klein by German playwright, Botho Strauss Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Juliette Binoche lead the line-up for the Barbican's 30th anniversary celebrations next year.

Blanchett will star in Botho Strauss play Gross und Klein, in January, while Binoche will appear in French language piece Mademoiselle Julie, in September.

Among other events will be the UK's biggest Bauhaus exhibition in 40 years.

The Barbican said its "world-class events" put it "at the heart if the London 2012 Festival".

This summer's festival is the culmination of London's Cultural Olympiad programme.

'International moment'

The Bauhaus: Art as Life exhibition will include work from artists who attended the German modern art school, which was founded by Walter Gropius in 1919.

It will feature Paul Klee, Marcel Breuer, Anni Albers and Mies van der Rohe works.

The Barbican programme will include theatre, art, architecture, design, film, music, opera and dance.

Barbican managing director Sir Nicholas Kenyon said there would be "something for everyone".

"In 2012 London welcomes the world for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Barbican will be at the forefront of that international moment with an extraordinary range of great cultural experiences for all," he added.

Other highlights will include the UK premiere, in May, of Robert Wilson and Philip Glass' 1976 work Einstein on the Beach, An Opera in Four Acts.

As part of the finale to the Barbican's London 2012 Festival celebrations, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will return, following on from their residency last year.

They will perform with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis as well as Simon Rattle, who will conduct the Barbican's resident orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra.

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