It was a practice swim like another day for a woman in New Zealand, until some unannounced visitors began swimming alongside her, off the coast of Coromandel. “There was a shape that went under me, like a huge shape and I thought [it was] dolphins and I was quite excited, and then I saw the great white colour on the back,” Judie Johnson of Hahei said. As it turned out, a number of orcas or killer whales had surrounded her.

She told 1 NEWS that she swam out of the water immediately because she feared they could harm her. But then she decided to jump back in to complete her swim. The mammals surrounded her once again and a drone belonging to a tourist captured the moment.

“It was so different to anything that’s happened to me before, and I thought, no, this is a life-changing experience,” Johnson said. “They were as interested and curious about me as I was about them,” she added.

Although killer whales are carnivores and eat sea lions and seals, they are not known to attack humans, according to the National Geographic.