Divers removing rubbish from Oriental Bay came away with more than they bargained for - an explosive from World War II.
Cue a quick call to the bomb squad and some rather startled Wellingtonians.
Going out with a bang. A bomb squad safely detonated a deadly explosive in Owhiro Bay, leaving locals shocked.
"It was quite delayed and really loud, probably the mountains helped it ripple," one person said.
"I was around the corner with my son and turned around and said to him, 'Was that a bomb?'" another said.
Authorities were called in after a group of divers found what's believed to be a WWII-type grenade or fuse.
"I was told by the bomb squad this had a lethal range of about half a metre, so if it went off it could've killed a lot of people," said Andrew Stewart, a member of the Ghost Diving shore team.
Stewart is part of the team that discovered the bomb while diving for rubbish nearby at Oriental Bay last weekend.
"We weren't sure what it was, whether it was live, or it was a dummy, so we kept it in a bucket on my back lawn," he said.
Until authorities turned up to inspect the suspicious item.
"When they guys came round their initial reaction said it all, 'Oh fudge', or words to that effect," Stewart said.
This isn't the first time the group of divers has come across explosives in Wellington's Harbour.
"You never know what you're gonna find here in Wellington Harbour, this is the third time we've come across live ordinance," Ghost Diving NZ founder Rob Wilson said.
"Thankfully our shore-leader Andrew identified something unusual fairly quickly."
But the bomb scare won't stop this determined group from cleaning up our oceans.
"It's really important to do what we're doing to improve the oceans, it's something we're passionate about since we started doing what we were doing," Wilson said.
Hopefully diving bombs will be the only ones going off in Oriental Bay.
