Mulinder said he instantly got attention for the video, and was recognized while he was on his way to the Network 10 interview. "My Uber driver who just brought us here just goes 'you're the guy, you're the octopus guy'," Mulinder told Network 10.
After the seal slap, Mulinder and his fellow kayakers were in complete awe.
"No way! That was mental!" one of Mulinder's friends shouted in the video.
The slap in the face was probably a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, but seals often thrash around octopi before eating them, so the animals weren't doing anything out of the ordinary, Network 10 reports.
The incident has now been seen all over the world and Mulinder is overwhelmed with the response. "There's a couple hundred emails sitting in there, the phone hasn't stopped ringing, people are literally cold calling me, my Instagram has gone crazy," the 37-year-old said.
Mulinder said he is a professional GoPro-er and with his new-found internet fame, he wants to draw attention to the location of the octopus whipping. "Kaikoura is a very special place and post-earthquake, that town is beautiful, it was beautiful pre-earthquake and post-earthquake even better," he said, referring to the strong quake that struck earlier this month.
As for his secret to viral success, Mulinder has a simple answer: "Just go get slapped in the face by an octopus, its not that hard."