Reece Samuels has seen a few great white sharks during the 27 years he's been diving - but he admits to feeling a little intimidated watching a particularly "curious" one poke its head out of the water and chew the outboard when he was fishing.
The 33-year-old Kerikeri man, his dad Dover and nephew Tui had been out to Taheke Reef - off the Cavalli Islands - to do a spot of hapuka fishing on Sunday and then came back into one of the other islands - Panaki - to fish for snapper and dive for paua and kina about 2pm.
"We were probably there for 15 to 20 minutes and on the starboard side of the boat I heard like a bow wave of a small boat passing but very quietly, so like the breaking of the water, and the shark was on the surface.
"It circled and circled and circled. The old man thought it was a mako to begin with but not until she became more game and came right in and stuck her head out of the water at the back and started to have a bit of a chew on the outboard - out of the water - did we realise it was a 15ft (4.5m) white shark."
He said the shark was more curious than other great whites he had encountered.