A Mount Maunganui couple on their morning walk were taken aback when they spotted a shark just metres from shore.

Richard Hoit and his wife Trish were out walking along the oceanbeach between Harrisons Cut and Papamoa Surf Club early Sunday morning when they spotted the shark, believed to be a bronze whaler.

A bronze whaler caught in the shallows at Papamoa Beach.

'Every Saturday or Sunday we go for a walk in the morning. My wife said ‘there's a shark' and then blow me there it is just to the left of us.”

'Two steps you could of touched it.”

Richard estimates the shark to be about 7-8feet long between the dorsal fin and back tail fin.

'I honestly didn't think they came in that close, not up to your knees. It was quite impressive.

'The tide was quite high and it must drop off.”

With the water being crystal clear, Richard and Trish got a good look at the shark and snapped a photo on an iPhone.

'It was clear as day. I said to my wife – ‘have you got your phone' and she had it there, so we took the photo.”

This isn't the first close encounter for Richard, who also nearly stepped on a sea lion on the ocean beach, thinking it was a log.

'Turned out it was a baby sea lion. All of a sudden the log started snapping at me. And there was a killer whale, which beached itself at Harrisons Cut a few years back.

'We are quite lucky how diverse the sea life is here.”

Richard and Trish have been living in Tauranga for the last seven years, but Richard says they have never come across a shark.

'I think I'll swim between the flags from now on.”

Surf lifeguards say bronze whalers are regularly seen along the Western Bay of Plenty coastline and there have been a number of sightings this summer.

Earlier in January, a bronze whaler, estimated to be about 2-3metres long was spotted at Papamoa Beach.

NIWA Principal Scientist, Dr Malcolm Francis, earlier told SunLive bronze whalers typically occur in pairs or small groups and sightings increase at this time of year due to warmer waters.

To read more about bronze whaler shark sightings, click here.