Killer kayak moment in Sounds

But suddenly, the small pod popped up about 100 metres from them.

‘‘It was a pure fluke, we were in the right place at the right time,’’ he said.

‘‘We had probably about 10 minutes, where they didn’t seem to be taking any notice of us. They were milling around the same sort of area that we were, they were backwards and forwards and upwards and down.’’

Watson said the moment was ‘‘pretty special’’, as one of the orcas swam right up to the group, diving under a kayak just in time.

‘‘I’ve had 25 years working in business down there and that’s the first time I’ve actually kayaked with orcas,’’ he said. ‘‘It was a first for me, I’ve seen orcas from a boat, but never sitting in a small plastic kayak.

‘‘It was an amazing experience, we happened to be in that exact spot at the right time, and they popped up really close to us. They were moving somewhere else, which meant he came towards us. It was a beautiful thing, it was a very close encounter.

‘‘There was certainly no trepidation about being attacked or flipping over a kayak or anything like that, so I felt confident.’’ Watson said afterwards they all joked about just going home, because the encounter couldn’t be topped.

‘‘This was 10am, and things were looking pretty average after that,’’ he said. ‘‘But, we carried on, and later in the day we were having lunch in Governors Bay, and we could still see them in the distance just milling around.

‘‘They hung around for a long time, there’s very few boats or anybody about at the moment in the [Marlborough] Sounds, so they seemed to be going unnoticed. It’s cool to see them in the Sounds, and it was actually really cool to see them undisturbed. It’s a shame that everyone can’t see them, but a random encounter like that, where they come to you, is pretty cool.’’