Ridley the sea turtle heading to a new home

Ridley, the olive ridley sea turtle found washed ashore on Wellington's south coast. Photo / Mark Mitchell, NZ Herald

Ridley the endangered sea turtle who washed up in Wellington is heading north to a new home.

The young female olive ridley sea turtle was found at a beach in the suburb of Lyall Bay last month and has since been cared for by Wellington Zoo's hospital The Nest Te Kohanga.

But tomorrow she'll fly to Auckland's Kelly Tarlton's aquarium, where she will temporarily housed until she's strong enough to be released into the wild.

Olive ridley sea turtles normally live in warm, tropical waters so Ridley was a long way from home when she washed up in a critical condition suffering from hypothermia, dehydration and an injured shell.

She's been in good hands since and has made progress.

"It's very exciting to be at this stage of Ridley's recovery. For her to have shown this much improvement is a good sign and bodes well for her eventual release back to the wild," said veterinarian Baukje Lenting.

"She's now fit and strong enough to move on to the next stage of her rehabilitation, which is wonderful news."

After Wellington Zoo staff say goodbye Ridley catches an early morning flight to Auckland.

"We have planned every detail of the transfer to ensure that Ridley will be as comfortable as possible throughout the short duration of the flight," said Dr Lenting.

"She'll then move into a large, warm salt-water pool when she arrives at Kelly Tarlton's."

Its curator Andrew Christie said without the work of those looking after her, Ridley would not be alive today.

"Our efforts will now focus on continuing the tremendous rehabilitation work that Wellington Zoo has done so we can ultimately release Ridley back into the wild.

"By all accounts she has progressed well, however, from our experience she is only half way through the journey to full health. After she arrives Ridley will spend time in our turtle rehabilitation area where we will work on her ability to dive and to establish neutral buoyancy, which means she will be able to feed and rest on the bottom as healthy turtles do in the wild.

"Once Ridley passes this milestone and gains a respectable amount of weight, we will introduce her into our main oceanarium where she will spend time with other rehab turtles to help her build up muscle strength and fitness. She will be monitored on a very frequent basis to ensure she is recovering at the rate we would expect for this species, and only when we are confident she is ready, she will be released back into the ocean."