The skipper of a fishing charter says he and his customers witnessed a "once in a lifetime" experience when a mako shark lept onto the front of his boat.
Skipper of Churchys Charters NZ Ryan Churches took a bunch of fishing enthusiasts out to Whitianga on what looked like a beautiful day.
But all of a sudden "this thing jumps out of the water and lands on the front of the boat, which is pretty out there".
Churches told AM the mako got stuck on the anchor at the front of the boat for a short time. He then lowered the anchor releasing the mako back to where it came from.
"It sort of slid between the rails and got out that way, lucky to have a windscreen by the end of it though."
He said the mako escaped unscathed by the incident.
"They're pretty tough animals, the makos, so I'm glad he got off because it wouldn't have been much fun helping him off."
And the skipper and his customers weren't put off by their surprising guest onboard.
"We got some more live baits out there and got into the kingfish."
Churches later uploaded the video of the encounter on Facebook and several people commented on crazy it was.
"Wow that's some crazy fish," one said.
Another said: "Bet that gave you a fright."
Watch the video above.
