An Auckland man out kayaking this week gave a lift to a seal, who jumped aboard for about five minutes.
In just his second outing on his new kayak, Henry Han was joined by the animal on Wednesday afternoon.
Mr Han was out fishing off the Thames Coast, near Waikawau, when he spotted the seal. He snapped images on his phone and sent them to workmate Martin Plom.
"Much to his surprise, the seal jumped on board," Mr Plom said.
"[Mr Han] had looked across and seen this seal swimming. He paddled a little bit closer and it swam over and jumped on board and just sat on the kayak for five minutes, resting and sunning itself - quite a shock."
