This big, beautiful leatherback turtle couldn’t resist saying hello to a group of boaties out on the water in Mangawhai Heads, near Auckland, in New Zealand’s North Island.

Pippa told Storyful: “I didn’t even know that turtles visited NZ waters, so was totally amazed!”

Leatherback turtles are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/marine-fish-and-reptil ; target="_blank">critically endangered. Credit: Pippa Partington via Storyful