A misty morning close encounter with a pod of orcas left a Dunedin kayaker on the brink of tears last weekend.
Chris McCormack was kayaking in Otago Harbour on Saturday when a pod of three orcas surfaced just before him as a heavy layer of fog rolled onto Taiaroa Head at the end of Otago Peninsula.
"I had two seals coming towards me and was fighting the current when I saw them (the orcas)," Mr McCormack said.
"I actually freaked out a bit, I was over the moon, totally wasn't expecting it. It was luck of the draw really."
Mr McCormack said he attempted to follow the pod while "keeping my distance" but the strength of the current the orcas were swimming against meant he could only get a few seconds of footage, on his DSLR camera, before the whales were out of sight.
And Mr McCormack describes the moments following the encounter as intensely emotional.
"I nearly had a tear in my eye to be honest, I was buzzing," he said.
Mr McCormack works as the operations manager Royal Albatross Centre - a charitable trust aimed at protecting the Otago Peninsula flora and fauna.
He says he has encountered ocras in Otago Habour three times this year including three weeks ago, which he suspects was the same pod as on the weekend.
Mr McCormack said local fisherman have also witnessed orcas in Otago Harbour with increasingly regularity this year.
One orca in particular called Koru, is believed to have a distinctive curve to its fin, he says.
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