Shark Mystery in Turangi

February 15, 2007
Stuff, New Zealand

The Turangi community is mystified as to how a 1.7m mako shark turned up near the town centre.

A motorist thought the shark was a body on the road in the town on the shores of acclaimed trout fishery Lake Taupo.

But when she hurriedly stopped her car and rushed back, she realised something fishy was going on.

The "shark finder", who wished to remain anonymous, found it near the Turangi town centre roundabout at 10.30pm on Sunday.

"I thought "oh my gosh, someone's been hit', because it was just lying there," she told the Daily Post newspaper.

"It was about 5-foot 8 or 5-foot 9, about the length of a person.

"Then I felt a bit silly when I found it wasn't a body but a shark."

The woman said the shark was "fresh-ish".

"But by the morning it didn't look quite so good.

"It was a bit smelly."

The pungent shark's epic journey from the sea, about 100km away as the crow flies, to Turangi soon came to an undignified end when it reached its final destination in the Taupo District Council's offal pit.

Meanwhile, the newspaper reported, how it came to be in Turangi remains a mystery.

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