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Partner of New Zealand PM fought an 'agitated' shark while diving

“First bloke” Clarke Gayford hosts a fishing show.

Dolphin A labeled image of gayford and the shark (aka, not a dolphin). Twitter / Clarke Gayford Twitter / Clarke Gayford / Clarke Gayford

THE PARTNER OF New Zealand’s Prime Minister has revealed that he fought off a shark with a pole while diving off Auckland.

“First bloke” Clarke Gayford, the partner of Jacinda Ardern, tweeted a picture of himself keeping the predator at bay while a dolphin swims in the background.

However, instead of launching a Flipper-style rescue to chase off the shark, Gayford said the dolphin was content to watch the underwater drama unfold from a distance.

“So it turns out that not only do dolphins not help, they actually quite like watching,” he tweeted. “A childhood myth is ruined.”

Gayford, who hosts a television fishing show, said he was helping a camera operator shoot footage for the educational show Young Ocean Explorers when the incident occurred.

He said he was “swimming safety”, or keeping watch so the cameraman could concentrate on filming bottle-nosed dolphins and false killer whales off Great Barrier Island near Auckland.

“They were feeding on kingfish and had been tearing some large ones in half and putting blood in the water, which attracted several large bronze whaler sharks,” Gayford told AFP.

I got in the water and they turned their attention on me, I had to fend the large one pictured off with a pole several times, as it was getting quite agitated.
We got out not long after.

It is not Gayford’s only recent encounter with a shark.

In March, he tweeted a picture of himself with “an overly amorous whale shark” that he said accidentally pinned him against a boat.

Gayford will soon swap his deep-sea adventures for the role of stay-at-home dad when Ardern gives birth to the couple’s first child, due on 17 June.

Ardern plans to take six weeks maternity leave then resume running the country.

© – AFP 2018

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    Mute David Van-Standen
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    Apr 21st 2023, 7:38 AM

    Yeah! The hilarity that is American politics continues to deliver.

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    Mute Hannah Hannah
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    Apr 21st 2023, 9:01 AM

    Biden is one of the worst presidents in America history.

    Trump 2024.

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    Mute Numinous20111
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    Apr 21st 2023, 9:08 AM

    @Hannah Hannah: Biden will not be ranked near Trump’s current 4th worst position. However, I don’t believe he should run for re-election due to his age (please note the obvious implication about Trump as well). Biden’s administration has generally done an effective job (with some major and minor screw-ups and also some unexpected major successes and some expected major successes) and Biden has had the unfair advantage of following Trump, which distorts Biden’s public perception to the positive in almost every way possible. The problem is that the Democratic Party have done very little to establish another potential candidate in the public awareness.

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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    Apr 21st 2023, 2:12 PM

    @Hannah Hannah: except for all the rest of them that is

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    Mute Bass Boss
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    Apr 21st 2023, 10:59 AM

    the free pass this guy gettin’..!

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    Mute GERARD KENNELLY
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    Apr 21st 2023, 9:50 AM

    is Joe busy may 6th ?

    why would the POTUS snub the coronation ?

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    Mute Donal O'Brien
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    Apr 21st 2023, 10:47 AM

    @GERARD KENNELLY: because the King of England isn’t his boss.

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    Mute Carm(Orange Vampire)
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    Apr 21st 2023, 12:41 PM

    @GERARD KENNELLY: Because no American President has ever attended a British coronation so why should he?

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    Mute Mise Anseo
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    Apr 21st 2023, 1:06 PM

    Unfortunately he has not acquitted himself well in the role. But at least he was 100% better than that other option the Republican party were offering. It was most definitely a case of “ANYONE is better than letting Trump back into power.”

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    Mute Carm(Orange Vampire)
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    Apr 21st 2023, 12:43 PM

    I love Joe Biden but I don’t think he should run again.

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    Mute Joan Grennan
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 12:05 PM

    BIden is absolutely not up to it at all and it is more than essential that the Democratic party find the courage to break it to him . He is quite simply past it and I say it as someone who is a senior citizen myself . On the other hand while he is lost in a nostalgic daze about his Irishness Ireland is the lucky beneficiary . Meantime Hillary Clinton.on Late Late was absolutely flying it , bright as a button , wonderfully articulate .She can’t have been too focused on Bill though ,who looked so utterly ecstatic with the beautiful head of Mrs Colm Eastwood on his shoulder as they hugged each other during all that meet and greet .Hillary ,was robbed before of the top job but would make a great candidate still .

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