New Zealand's 'first bloke', husband of prime minister Jacinda Ardern, fends off aggressive shark with pole

'A childhood myth is ruined,' says Clarke Gayford in apparent Flipper reference

New Zealand's 'first bloke', Clarke Gayford, fends off an agitated copper shark (Clarke Gayford)

New Zealand's "first bloke", Clarke Gayford, has posted a picture of himself fending off an aggressive shark with a pole.

Mr Gayford, a television host, is the partner of New Zealand's prime minister Jacinda Ardern.

"A childhood myth is ruined," he lamented in a tweet after spotting a dolphin in the background while he was protecting himself from the shark, a bronze whaler, also known as a copper shark.

In the 1963 film Flipper, the titular dolphin saves his friend, a boy named Sandy, from a shark by ramming it with its snout.

"So it turns out that not only do dolphins not help, they actually quite like watching," Mr Gayford added.

The encounter took place while he was helping a cameraman film bottle-nosed dolphins off Great Barrier Island, near Auckland.

The marine mammals were eating kingfish, Mr Gayford told AFP, and blood in the water attracted a number of copper sharks.

"I had to fend the large one pictured off with a pole several times, as it was getting quite agitated," the fishing programme host added. "We got out not long after."

It was not Mr Gayford's first close encounter with a shark.

In March he posted an image of himself with an "overly amorous" whale shark that pinned him against a boat.

The whale shark is the biggest fish in the sea.