A shark washed up on Westshore Beach gave Napier residents a close encounter with the rarely-seen animal.
Residents said they thought the shark, identified as a bronze whaler, was between a metre-and-a-half to 2m long.
Napier resident Libor Bombik and his family saw the shark lying on the beach on Wednesday afternoon.
Mr Bombik said his three young daughters hadn't been frightened and actually thought the shark was "pretty cool".
"My 6-year-old was pretty excited and was poking it ... even for me and my wife touching a shark's skin was quite cool."