A New Zealand couple are in awe of two tourist guides who saved them after they came face-to-face with an elephant while on a foot safari in the Kruger National Park in Limpopo.

Brett Larson‚ who had been on honeymoon with his new wife‚ said the bull charged at them not once‚ not twice‚ but three times.

The incident happened on Monday.

“We were walking in the forest and we came past some trees and approached a hill. The hill was on our right hand side about 100 metres away and there on the hill‚ there was the elephant‚” Larson said.

“We were told to be very calm and still and we stood there for about two minutes with the elephant just looking at us. It was getting agitated and it suddenly charged at us.”

In a situation like that‚ one undoubtedly gets into fight-or-flight mode but Larson said their tour guides told them not to budge.

“The one guide immediately walked about two metres towards the elephant and he yelled something in Afrikaans at the elephant. It was like something from a movie. The elephant stopped and stomped its feet. The elephant was going crazy and the guide was trying to calm it down‚” he said.