An Auckland mum is shocked after her toddler found a machete on Orewa beach.
Teesha Byford-Danen told Newshub her son was enjoying a day at the beach when he discovered a machete among the rocks.
Byford-Danen's mother immediately took the machete from the toddler and walked him back towards his mum.
"My mum was right there with him, his nana, and they walked back to me with her carrying this machete. She says he just leaped down and picked it up, and she was like "what!"
She says the weapon was "almost the same size" as her two-year-old and had "red stuff" on the blade.
She immediately put the machete in the back of her car and drove straight to the police station to hand it in.
"When I handed it over, they wouldn't touch it with their hands, they were grabbing it with their sleeve," she says.
She posted a picture of her mother holding the knife to a local Facebook page where a slew of responses suggested it was left there for cutting kina - but she's not convinced.
"There's no kina there - that's what's odd about it...the rocks are quite a way up the beach too, so I don't think it travelled by water and ended up there because it's not rusty either."
Newshub has contacted the police for comment.
