Mysterious bright sphere over Christchurch latest in record of unexplained Kiwi UFOs

Mystery object filmed above Christchurch

Were officials interested in other UFO reports?

It seems they weren’t totally uninterested. Files released in 2010 show a government-run Unidentified Flying Object Investigating Committee existed until the mid 1970s. It was abolished, seemingly for lack of interest, six years after its last meeting.

Nothing to see here then?

That’s certainly the official version. The files released in 2010 contained more than 2000 pages and detailed hundreds of reported sightings. Then-Defence Minister Wayne Mapp said people could “make what they will” of the reports, but he believed “a quick scan of the files indicates that virtually everything has a natural explanation”.

Any other well known NZ sightings?

Another good one was reported in November 1955 by Captain WT Rainbow, the pilot of a National Airways Corporation plane. The sighting was made somewhere between Ohura and Raglan during a flight from Wellington to Auckland. The light was  ”showing apparent movement, changes in colour and fluctuation in light and intensity”. 

Rainbow, was summonsed to Wellington to make a report. After officials settled on Venus rising in the night sky as their explanation for the light, Rainbow wrote a letter to the air force saying: ”Personally, after all the newspaper reports, phone calls, RNZAF statements plus personal embarrassment I would have to have the little men waving to me before I made any further reports of this nature.”

What about earlier reports?

It seems 1909 was a particularly good year for UFOs in New Zealand. From mid July to early September, thousands of people, particularly in the South Island, reported seeing airborne lights, cigar-shaped objects in the sky, and airships. There were descriptions of a bright light enveloped by an opaque body, while many other sightings were made during daylight.

In an article in NZ Skeptics, Robert Bartholomew said the sightings were a remarkable social delusion. Many citizens were convinced they had seen a hostile German Zeppelin spying and possibly ready to drop bombs.

What about less skeptical New Zealanders?

These days UFO sightings in this country are catalogued and listed by UFocus NZ which was set up in 2000 by Suzanne Hansen, who had her own unexplained experience on the road north of Gisborne late one night in 1978. With her husband, she was high up in the hills between Tologa Bay and Tokomaru Bay.

As they came over the brow of a hill, the bottom of the valley ahead was out of sight but the valley itself was bathed in a bright, white light, brighter than sunlight. The car stalled and Hansen started to notice her arms and legs feeling numb and tingly, she heard a deep buzzing and felt dizzy. Her next memory was of staring out the front window of the car. The light had gone.

A higher profile Kiwi with a fascination for UFOs was Captain Bruce Cathie who, like Rainbow, was a pilot for NAC. Cathie talked about his life changing dramatically in 1952 when he saw his first UFO. It was hovering over the Manukau Harbour and had an intensely brilliant white light. A smaller glowing red light was some distance from it. He and other witnesses were held spellbound as it went through a series of manoeuvres for 20 minutes before it disappeared straight up into the sky.

Cathie went on to write several books and came up with a theory that a grid-like energy pattern covers the earth. He argued that the grid was the power source for UFOs, and had the power to control or cause nuclear-based events.

Any other good footage of UFOs in New Zealand?

Again it’s the Aussies. Filming near Queenstown in April 2014, a crew working on the art show Colour In Your Life inadvertently captured footage of two black dots flashing across the sky. By one calculation the objects were travelling at 4000kmh but some viewers were convinced they were birds or bugs.

Unexplained objects or lights in the sky seem to turn up throughout the historical record but so far there’s no compelling proof – at least none that’s publicly available – to show any have been extraterrestrial in origin. If that ever changes, then so will a whole lot else.

 - Stuff