Orca and dolphins visit Wellington's Lyall Bay

Dolphins frolicking in Lyall Bay. Photo / Sarah Chandler.

A stunning summer's day in Wellington has attracted some aquatic visitors to the coastline, with locals spotting orcas and dolphins.

The word started to spread across social media this morning, with pictures of a lone orca in Lyall Bay.

Only a few hours later a group of dolphins were spotted, with delighted locals reporting sightings across Lyall Bay and Houghton Bay.

Wellington woman Sarah Chandler was walking past her window at 7am, when movement in the water caught her eye.

An orca basking in Lyall Bay. Photo / Sarah Chandler

She quickly realised it was an orca.

"I only saw it as it had jumped out of the water and I noticed the white marking on it as I was passing the window.

"It headed quite quickly around the corner towards Houghton Bay.

"It was larger than the [dolphins] seen later in the morning, which seem to be a smaller sized group of four.

"It's the first time I've seen this since I moved here 10 years ago."

An orca basking in Lyall Bay. Photo / Sarah Chandler

Niwa marine ecologist Dr Kim Goetz said: "Usually they're coming in because they're foraging on some sort of prey source.

"Especially this time of year when the water's starting to get warm, there tends to be more productivity and upwelling in the water.

"For killer whales they're often following sting rays, for common dolphins they're looking for groups of small fish they can forage on."

Goetz said Wellington often hosted such marine visitors, but they could be tricky to spot.

"Especially the killer whales that have been around, they haven't been in big groups, which makes it tricky.

"You want to look for some sort of splashing, or for the killer whales you'll see a large fin pop out of the water."