The dramatic footage captured by the drone shows the shark slowly making its way up and down the bay. Frightened onlookers watch from the shore after having their swim interrupted by the massive fish.
“You know when someone pregnant runs the distance of the beach it’s time to get out of the water.”
The shark had the water to itself after beachgoers fled in fear.
This comes after a spate of shark sightings around the top of the North Island.
On January 7, a boatie off Northland’s Hen and Chicken Islands faced an encounter with a 4m great white shark that circled his boat for over an hour.
Fisherman Warwick Catchpole told the Herald the animal “chewed” on the boat’s motor and burley pot while the stunned boaties watched the encounter in awe.
“It was surreal.”
Surf Life Saving eastern manager Chaz Gibbons-Campbell said in the past two weeks it had had 42 sightings across Coromandel and Bay of Plenty.
“That’s from lifeguards seeing sharks swimming by, and most of them are on the small-size range, so sort of under a metre and a half.”
