Did you know there are flying fish in New Zealand?

March 6th, 2024

I've been living in New Zealand 21 years and we've been sailing New Zealand's northern coastline for over two years and we thought we knew what was in New Zealand's coastal waters. Imagine our surprise when one flew past Tāiko and we were to see two more. The first encounter was as we were leaving Whangaroa Harbour. With excitement, Adam yelled "A flying fish just flew over the boat!". By the time I looked, the fish was skimming over the water and looked like a shearwater. My reply to him was, "I don't think so." After all, we thought flying fish were only in tropical waters not cold waters like New Zealand.

Well, I was soon proven wrong because as we made our way through the Cavalli Islands, a flying fish flew out of the water right in front of me. This time there was no disputing it because I had seen it with my own eyes. It looked like a huge torpedo which was so muscular that if it hit you, it would seriously hurt. I had to look it up online to make sure we weren't seeing things and we weren't. Google was full of information about flying fish in New Zealand and we couldn't believe it. How had we not known this? We saw the third one as we sailed down the coast and neared the Bay of Islands. Over two years of sailing and we never see a flying fish. Sail 30 nautical miles down the coast and we see three in the space of 6 hours! Incredible.

If you want to see more of New Zealand's beautiful coastline, watch the video below.