A group of little blue penguins will finally get a taste of freedom today after weeks in care following the Rena oil spill.
The penguins were among hundreds of birds caught pre-emptively after the container ship grounded on the Astrolabe Reef in the Bay of Plenty on October 5.
More than 1300 birds, along with other animals, died as a result of the ship's oil spill.
After being cleaned and cared for by the oiled wildlife response team, 49 little blue penguins were released late last month.
Another 30 will be set free at Mount Maunganui, with local school children helping.
Fifteen endangered dotterel were released back into the wild on Saturday, after the clean-up of their Maketu Spit habitat.
Only 1700 dotterel remain in the wild.
Meanwhile, salvage workers' progress in removing containers from the ship has stalled since the 167th container was lifted off on Friday.
There were 1368 containers on board the vessel when it grounded, but 86 were known to have fallen overboard.
A new crane barge will head out to the Rena on Thursday and Maritime New Zealand hopes it will begin removing containers on Friday, if the weather and sea state allowed.
NZN