Playful killer whales go cruising with jet ski riders off New Zealand

Feb. 28 (UPI) -- A pair of jet ski riders off the coast of New Zealand captured footage of a pod of playful killer whales swimming close alongside them.

David Lyons said he was riding the jet ski with a passenger off the Kaikoura Peninsula, northeast of New Zealand's South Island, when the pair spotted the orcas.

Lyons' video shows the killer whales swimming alongside the jet ski and coming extremely close to the craft and its human riders.

Lyons said the whales were "totally surrounding us and playing with the wake and bubbles, freely swimming underneath and beside us and slapping their flukes with excitement."