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There’s nothing about a pod of orca playing in the famous carol, but that’s what one Christchurch woman got for Christmas when she was showing visiting whānau around Lyttelton.
Izzy Crowther said she was on a boat in the harbour about 1.10pm on Christmas Eve with her aunt and uncle from Whāngarei, who “funnily enough [were] talking about how they had seen orca in their bay recently”.
“Then a few moments later two fins popped out of the water probably 100m away from where we were, they were right in close to the bank.
“We saw two dorsal fins together and then just in front of them, another two popped up.”
Crowther said there were five in total. One with a significantly larger dorsal fin appeared to be an adult male.
“Apart from crossing the harbour they stuck super close to the shore line and a couple of times they were rolling around in the seaweed, could be seen playing/trying to eat something and one even jumped out of the water.”
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The family followed them for 90 minutes as they cut across the harbour to Diamond Harbour, then made their way round into Purau Bay and Ripapa Island.
Crowther understood orca had not been spotted in Lyttelton since 2017. She isn’t the only Kiwi to spot them in Aotearoa’s waters this year, though.
In November, fishers diving for kina in Whangārei Heads had a surprise encounter with a pod.
In September, a pod made Tui Prouting’s 11th birthday party the “best birthday so far”.
Pods have been spotted elsewhere too, including in New Plymouth and Nelson earlier in the year.
The Nelson encounter saw a dad and his children surprised by an orca chasing a stingray while they were out kayaking.
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