An amazing rescue took place when lifeguard Rob Howes took his daughter and her friends for a swim off the coast of northern New Zealand.

A pod of dolphins provided a protective barrier around the group when they were threatened by a great white shark, surrounding the swimmers for 40 minutes before they were able to make it back to shore.

Mr Howes said: "The dolphins had obviously picked up that there was a shark in the water somewhere, which would be the indicator there would be the heightened agitation with the dolphins, the way they circled, slapped the water.

"I would say the large dolphin that approached me submerged and then my subsequent turn to then identify the shark, would indicate that that dolphin had picked up where that shark was coming from, and where it was going to and may have attempted to cut it off.

"But the shark had continued an arch towards the girls and that's why the other dolphin surrounding Nicola and Corina just basically boiled the water to just create confusion."

Marine Mammal Biologist Dr Rochelle Constantine said: "I think the dolphins really were engaging in a protective sort of behaviour.

"They were probably protecting themselves as much.

"There were no calves in the group. So usually they would direct this behaviour at looking after themselves and their calves. But in this case they just decided to look after the people for want of a better description."