'I don't know who got the bigger fright - the octopus, the seal or me'

"And I got slapped in the face ... by an octopus ... by a seal ... in a kayak."

Grinning, Kyle Mulinder explains what it felt like to be slapped in the face by a seal with an octopus, while kayaking in Kaikoura at the weekend.

The bizarre moment was captured on camera and has since been shared on social media.

Mulinder, from Motueka, told the Herald it was an "absolutely crazy event".

He says he had been testing the new Go Pro Hero 7 with his friends from Kaikoura Kayaks when the unthinkable happened.

"[We were] just looking at fur seals, birds, just catching some waves and then we saw a giant male seal fighting an octopus.

"Cause that's what they do," he laughs.

"It was quite a way away and then next thing it just went deep and we didn't know where the seal was and honestly out of nowhere ... it popped up right beside us."

"'I don't know who got the bigger fright - the octopus, the seal or me."

Mulinder describes the run-in as "just one of those random events of Mother Nature."

He says it was "freaky as hell" because then the octopus then climbed and held on to the bottom of the kayak and they couldn't get it off.

"Eventually we were able to get it off.

"So the guy came over, and was able to use his paddle as an egg slice ... to get the octopus off.

"The seal swam away, the octopus went the other way and we paddled off, wondering what had just happened," he laughs.