A group of around 10 orca were spotted swimming off an Auckland beach on Friday morning.
Cheltenham Beach resident José Stern said there appeared to be a mother and her calf feeding around 30-40 metres from the shore.
"Everyone was so excited, the whole beach was filling up with people calling their friends, telling them to come have a look.
"It was really, really beautiful."
She said although there had been orca spotted in the area in the past, it was rare to see them playing near the shore.
"It's quite unusual for them to come so close to the beach that we can really see them breaching."
Stern said she was concerned for the wellbeing of the whales at one point "if they kept playing and feeding so close" to the Cheltenham shoreline.
"When the tide starts to go out it gets shallow really quickly, so we were quite worried they would get stranded," she said.
"In the end they all sort of disappeared around the city side, so that was fine."
Stern said the orca sighting marked what felt like the end of winter.
"You get the feeling that spring is starting again because the animals are breeding and coming in to feed, bringing the young ones in."
"It's really exciting."
It comes the same day a pod of 10 common dolphins stranded on Waiheke Island.
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