North Orca Experiences Provide Great Memories

Wednesday, January 4, 2006
NEW ZEALAND - Orcas ended 2005 with a big splash at Whangarei Heads and Mangawhai.

The show started on Friday morning when Sharleen Maxwell snapped the big marine mammals gambolling at the Whangarei Harbour entrance, and spotted them again in the afternoon when her boat was returning from a Bream Bay fishing trip.

Mrs Maxwell said there were eight or nine orcas including "little baby ones" in three pods.

"It was beautiful seeing them - really lovely. It looked like they were frolicking and really having fun. Their behaviour was what you would expect from dolphins."

Originally from Whangarei, Mrs Maxwell now lives in northern New South Wales and was back in Northland for a family visit.

She said the orca encounter had been a real highlight of the visit for her three young children and husband.

On Saturday three large orcas were spotted off Mangawhai and Mangawhai Surf Lifesaving Club lifeguards went out to photograph them. Californian exchange lifeguard Peter Belden snapped 16-year-old Mitchell Johnson, of Muriwai, smiling on his paddleboard only a metre from the fin of the largest orca.

But Mangawhai senior lifeguard Peter McInnes said Mitchell wasn't laughing when the orcas - sometimes known as "killer whales" although they are not reputed to attack humans - first made straight for him. "We were all a bit nervous when that happened, but the orcas veered aside without touching him," he said.

Source: The Northern Advocate