A young emperor penguin took a wrong turn from the Antarctic and ended up stranded on a New Zealand beach – the first time in 44 years the aquatic bird has been sighted in the south Pacific country.

Local resident Christine Wilton was taking her miniature schnauzer dog Millie for a walk on Peka Peka beach on the North Island's western coast when she discovered the bird.

"It was out of this world to see it ... like someone just dropped it from the sky," Wilton said.

Conservation experts say the penguin is about 10 months old and stands about 80cm (32 inches) high.

Emperor penguins are the tallest and largest species of penguin and can grow up to122cm high and weigh more than 34kg (75lbs).

Colin Miskelly, a curator at Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand, said the bird was likely to have been born during the last Antarctic winter. It may have been searching for squid and krill when it took a wrong turn.

He said emperor penguins can spend months at a time in the ocean, coming ashore only to molt or rest, but did not know what might have caused this particular one to become disoriented. Miskelly said the penguin appeared healthy and well fed, with plenty of body fat, and probably came ashore for a rest.

However, Miskelly said the penguin would need to find its way back south soon if it were to survive. Despite the onset of the New Zealand winter, the bird was probably hot and thirsty, he said, and it had been eating wet sand.

"It doesn't realise that the sand isn't going to melt inside it," Miskelly said. "They typically eat snow, because it's their only liquid."

Emperor penguins' amazing journey to breeding grounds deep in the Antarctic and their ability to survive the brutal winter there were captured in the 2005 documentary March of the Penguins.

Peter Simpson, a programme manager for New Zealand's department of conservation, said officials are asking people to stand back about 10m from the creature and to avoid letting dogs near it.

Other than that, he said, officials plan to let nature take its course. Simpson said the bird could live several weeks before needing another meal.

The last confirmed sighting of a wild emperor in New Zealand was in 1967 at the southern Oreti beach, he said.