A Whitianga couple got a shock when they found a fur seal sitting on the couch on their front porch.
The Gibsons live by the Whitianga Waterways and noticed the furry visitor making himself right at home.
Alison Gibson says her husband Barry saw the seal around 8am on Monday and "got a hell of a fright because there he was, just lying there".
"The cool bit is when I went outside because I thought it might have gone, and it hadn't gone, and it was lying on the couch," Gibson told Newshub.
"I was like, 'oh for God's sake, you're just taking the piss here'. This is ridiculous!"
Her husband rang up the Department of Conservation (DoC) who told him the seal would return to the waterways when he was ready.
"What happens at this time of the year, apparently, seals get new pups and they basically force the adolescent ones out on their own - but it's probably not that old."
A veterinarian friend came around and told the Gibsons that the animal, which is about five feet long or just over 1.5 metres, is a young adult.
The animal appeared "pretty happy ", Gibson said.
"Like, people sat pretty close to him and he didn't seem to mind. Just like, took no notice."
But by late afternoon, she was happy to see the seal leave the porch and head back down her garden path into the water.
"It's pretty cool but, by the end of the day when all our friends had come and had a look, I was hoping that he would go back. And it was about 6.15 at night he just did a big sigh, stood up and started moving off."
Gibson says the seal's left flipper appeared damaged and he was limping when he left - and wouldn't be told where to go either.
"The old boy had just put down new grass seeds so he was trying to channel the seal back to the sea. It went straight over onto his box heads that he'd been cultivating for five years, crushed it a bit and then waddled off."
The seal has been hanging around Whitianga for the last week, and also featured in a picture in the local paper - also lounging around, but on a boat ramp.
"The old boy saw him in the canal today when he went out fishing, so he's still around."
Newshub.
