Orca spotted in Taranaki waters
As Matt Stevenson and his family dined al fresco on Thursday evening, they were treated to an hour’s worth of unexpected entertainment from two pods of visiting orca.
‘‘We were sitting up having dinner on the deck when my brother spotted a bit of a splash in the water,’’ Stevenson said.
It turned out to be two separate pods of orca swimming about
500 metres off Oakura
Beach, 15 kilometres south of New Plymouth.
He said it was a ‘‘pretty amazing’’ experience and he was able to capture footage of one of the pods using a drone.
Stevenson said the orca stayed in the same spot for ‘‘a good hour’’ swimming back and forth. He said he lost sight of the mammals as the pods headed towards New Plymouth. He was unsure how many people saw the orca but there were plenty of people out swimming or walking on the beach as it had been such a beautiful evening.
It was not the first time Stevenson had seen orca off the Oakura coastline. Last year he saw orca swimming on two different occasions in the same area. He said the experience was a reminder of the beauty of the Taranaki environment.
Sophie Hunger was another resident who spotted the orca at play on Thursday night off the New Plymouth coast, just below Paritutu Rock, which she also described as amazing.
Orca have regularly been spotted off the Taranaki coastline in recent years, often between October and February.
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