New Zealand Man Films Close-Up Encounter With Orca Whale
Lukas Reilly described the moment as "quite freaky but so amazing."
— -- A New Zealand paddle boarder’s close encounter with an orca whale was caught on camera.
The paddle boarder, Lukas Reilly, was paddling off Kuaotunu Beach Monday morning when he says a few orcas began diving for stingrays underneath his board.
Reilly, a 27-year-old restaurant owner, told 3News he had a GoPro camera in his pocket and pulled it out to capture the moment that one of the orcas came over to check out his board.
"I was a bit nervous thinking, 'What's this guy going to do?,’” Reilly said. "Then he slowly crept up and grabbed the back of my board and I yelled, 'What are you doing!'"
Reilly told another local news station, TVNZ, that the orca “had a chew” on his board but described the close-up with the orca as a “friendly encounter.”
"It was quite freaky but so amazing at the same time,” Reilly told TVNZ.