All sightings, photographs, drawings and articles are © Ufocus NZ.

The extent of our investigation and analysis of sighting reports is dependent upon the data received, and the length of time elapsed between the sighting event and the receipt of a report.  If applicable, additional comments are made at the bottom of a report.

Date:  Saturday 9 October 2021

Time: after 11 pm

Location:  Piha Beach, Auckland, New Zealand

Features/characteristics: bright circular (disc-shaped) light

Description:

Mainly clear sky with patchy cloud; mist and wind coming in off the sea.  Duration of sighting approx. 30 seconds.

The witness was sitting on the beach at the north end, close to the Laird Thompson track steps, facing south.  She observed a bright orange circular light with a darkish ‘cloud’ or mist behind it, that appeared to have emerged from cloud.  It was clearly circular, glowing orange.  It moved across the sky from west (out at sea) to east.  The witness stated the glow was brighter at the leading edge or direction of travel, but the object remained clearly circular.  She could not see any detail.

The light moved on a “steady-moving gliding path” across the sky, remaining the same bright orange with the slightly pulsing light in front of it.  It disappeared into mist to the east as if heading over the Waitakere Ranges towards Auckland City.  The witness could see the glow within the mist as it moved beyond her vision over the ranges.

Map showing path of light from over the sea towards the Waitakere Ranges.  The witness was sitting on the beach approximately near the ‘A’ in Anawhata.

Date:  Friday 13 August 2021

Time: 12.30 pm-12.50 pm

Location:  Mornington/Maryhill, Dunedin, South Island

Features/characteristics: rugby ball shaped object

Description:

Clear weather, few clouds.  Duration of sighting approximately 10 seconds.

The witness, a 73-year-old former manager and Armed Security guard, was outside at his home which overlooks Dunedin City.

He turned to check for any clouds in the South and immediately noticed a dot in the distance that grew larger.  An object was rapidly approaching from the South towards the city and harbour.  The witness could tell it was moving too fast to be an aeroplane or helicopter and it continued at the same pace and in a straight line, passing by in front of him to the East and heading Northwards, at about 1200/1400ft in altitude.

When it was at its closest point, he could see it was a rugby-ball shaped object with no wings, no vapour trail and no noise, travelling faster than any plane he had ever seen. (At this point it was approximately the size of the nail of his little finger, handheld at arm’s length.

After 10 seconds from appearing in the South, his view of the object was blocked by a tree and the witness ran down a few steps in his garden to attempt to catch sight of it again, without success.

The lower 2/3 of the object appeared darker or shadier than the top 1/3, which shone bright white, although the witness believes this could have been sunlight reflecting on a silver surface.

The witness stated that he remained on the spot for another 5-10 minutes trying both to see it again and attempting to work out what it was. Having encountered helicopters and planes many times before in his life, including living right by the hospital, and airport flight paths, he is unequivocal that this was not the explanation and there was no noise associated with the object.

Date:  Sunday 16 May 2021

Time: approximately 6.15 pm

Location:  Beachlands, Auckland, North Island

Features/characteristics: equilateral triangular light configuration

Description:

Clear sky with a few clouds.

The witness was outside talking on his phone when he looked to the southwest and observed three faint (dim) white lights moving across the sky, in the shape of an equilateral triangle.  None of the lights were flashing or flickering and were moving in perfect formation (no deviation of any light, maintaining the same distance and speed) leading him to believe they were on each corner of a triangular object.  It was too dark for the witness to see if there was a solid mass between them.  He estimated they were some 10 km away, possibly over the suburb of Brookby.

Behind them, perhaps 1 km away, followed a fourth light moving in the same direction at the same speed.  The witness was able to observe the lights for a few seconds before they faded from view.

Date:  Saturday 24 April 2021

Time: approx. 6.45 pm

Location:  Hastings, Hawkes Bay, North Island

Features/characteristics: long rectangular object with lights

Description:

The sighting occurred after dark on an absolutely clear night, and 2 days off a full moon.  Duration of sighting just over 20 minutes.

The reporting witness and her daughter (driver) were leaving the Equestrian Grounds on the outskirts of Hastings.  As they drove through one of the exit gates the witness saw an airborne unusual configuration of lights to the right of them, maybe 200 to 300 metres away.  It had red and green lights, not flashing in rows, but showing an outline of a rectangle.  The lights/object was flying very slowly, perhaps the speed of a small plane idling in to land, and it was very low, about the height of a tall poplar tree.  There were 3 or 4 lights in each row and the size of the object looked substantial, far too large to be going that slowly and at that low altitude.

The reporting witness became nervous, thinking they were about to see a plane crash, even though she could not recognise the object as being a regular aircraft she would often see in this area, and she could not see a hard surface on it, just the lights.  Because it was low, she briefly lost sight of it behind trees.

As the car turned right onto Stock Rd and then left onto Maraekakaho Road, the object continued on its path now going over the Mangaroa Prison.  The witnesses were now able to see it again in full view and realised it was not going to crash.  As they went around the Maraekakaho roundabout and headed towards Hastings, the object was still to their right passing over paddocks and orchards.

By now they had decided this was definitely no ordinary aircraft.  As they neared the edge of town the object had disappeared over the first lot of houses and they thought it had gone, however just as they were about to pass the York Rd turnoff to Flaxmere, they could see it banking as it turned back towards them.

Her daughter quickly pulled over and the witness jumped out of the vehicle with her IPhone to try and capture a photo as it passed over.  It appeared to hover over and back a bit from the powerlines and the streetlight on the opposite side of the roadway and diagonal to them.  The witness quickly took 3 Live Photo’s then tried to alter the mode to video, but had trouble with this and took 2 still photos.

The object then flew off towards Flaxmere.

On examining the photos with the times on them they were very surprised to realise they had been parked up for 16 minutes and that for 14 minutes the witness had not taken any photos.  (Photos were inconclusive as there were a lot of lens flares and anomalies in the photos caused by temporary streetlights around roadworks.)  The two women had no recollection of what happened in those 14 minutes and both thought they were at the crossroad for 2 minutes at the most.  They did not hear any noise coming from the object.

On Monday the witness rang Bridge Pa Aerodrome to ask if anyone else had reported anything.  The duty person stated there had been 3 aircraft doing formation flying Sunday night, but this was the night after this sighting.  The witness commented, “But can they hover?”

The witness stated: “After travelling out that way (to the Equestrian fields) every day for 20 odd years, I have never witnessed anything like this and would be happy if I never did again!”

Date:  Saturday 24 April 2021

Time:  approx. 6.45-6.50 pm

Location:  Hastings, Hawkes Bay, North Island

Features/characteristics: A large rectangular object with rows of lights

Description:

Dark; clear evening.  The witness and her children were entering the Equestrian Park on the outskirts of Hastings in their vehicle when they observed airborne lights approaching – two rows of lights one above the other, (possibly 12) red at the top and green along the bottom, outlining a ‘massive’ rectangular (or possibly cylindrical) long narrow shape.  There were no visible white, flashing or strobing lights as there would be on an aircraft or helicopter at night.  They could not see the surface or details of the object other than the lights.

The witness joked with her children, “There’s a UFO!”  At that point, she felt quite calm, not at all scared, and she reported, “I think I knew it wasn’t a plane.”

They stopped and watched it approach from some distance away, slow and low, just rows of visible lights, but no body visible.  The children had their car windows down, but none of them heard any sound associated with the object, and only recalled this fact the following day.

On reflection, the witness found it bizarre that her reaction to the sighting was so nonchalant, and that shortly afterwards having entered the park grounds, she did not think to comment about it to other people or ask if anyone else had seen it.  At that time, most people involved in the weekend equestrian event were in their trucks, but there were others standing around in groups chatting, but nobody commented about a sighting.  It was not until the next day that the witness again recalled the details.

Date:  Saturday 24 April 2021

Time:  just before 6.00 pm

Location:  Highway 50 between Ongaonga and Takapau, Central Hawkes Bay, North Island

Features/characteristics:  long rectangular object with many lights

Description:

The witness was traveling on Highway 50 heading towards the town of Takapau.  It was dark with a mainly clear sky.  She saw many lights approaching, forming a shape that appeared rectangular.  Her first reaction was that it must be a helicopter or aircraft, but it was low and traveling very slowly.  She could not hear any sound above her car’s engine.  She could not see a cockpit as in a helicopter, or strobing/flashing lights, but she described the object as ‘brightly lit up’.  The object crossed the highway some 100-300 metres ahead of her, and she described seeing a glow or ‘bubble’, or oval shape at the front of the long object.  She did not recall the colour of the lights as she was taken by surprise.  The object was moving northwest over farmland in the direction of the ranges along Highway 50 (a rural back-highway route to Hastings).

Interim Report:

Date:  Friday 12 February 2021

Time:  10.30 pm

Location:  Trentham, Wellington, North Island

Features/characteristics:  equilateral triangle-shaped object

Description:

Clear still evening, new moon.

The witness was outside with his dog.  While looking north at the sky for satellites he noticed a dark patch of sky that differed from the surrounding area.  He realized he was looking at a dark shape moving slowly towards him that was an equilateral triangle, with a point leading.  There were no lights visible on the object.  It approached from the west across the ranges separating Trentham from Porirua, moving between a visible gap in those ranges.  The object moved towards his suburb, and eventually, right over above his house at an estimated low altitude of 1000 feet, and at an estimated speed of 50 kph.

The witness found an image on the internet that was close to what he saw.

In the night light/suburban light, the witness was able to clearly see features of the object.  He could see the edges were curved or rounded, and the body of the object was quite deep, estimated at around 30 metres.  The object seemed exceptionally dark, matt black against the sky, but the light from the ground revealed a ‘textured’ or ‘multi-facetted undersurface’.  The witness was shocked at how big the object was – describing it as being as large as a football field – and how long it took to slowly and silently pass overhead.

He watched as the object moved towards another range of hills and on out towards the sea and disappeared.  A few seconds later he observed an orange flash high in the sky above where he last saw the object and wondered if it had left our shores at speed in a sharp ascent

The witness is a retired Police Officer of 27 years and a private pilot of 35 years.  He stated he was “blown away” by the sighting, having never given much thought to UFO.  He described the object as “cruising along”, “perfect”, “magnificent technology”,  and “no way was this thing an aircraft”.

The next day the witness emailed the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Aeronautical Services:

“I was wondering if any unusual radar activity capturing a large signature was recorded over Upper Hutt, Trentham on Friday 12 Feb at about 2230 hrs?

I am a private pilot and familiar with most types of aircraft but I happened to see a very large object passing west to east at around this time. It went right over my suburb. I got a good view of the thing and can provide a reasonable description.

I have no idea what it was but it was impressive, large, fast, and totally silent. A perfect equilateral triangle and no lights, coloured black. Estimate size around a football field. It was flying fairly high and easily cleared the range behind our house so it had to be on the radar with the size of it. I’m just wondering what it was?  Happy to discuss.

I am a retired police officer of 30 years and no, I am not a nutter and I had not been drinking. It was clearly some type of aircraft which looked a little like a stealth bomber but was perfectly triangular from ground, straight sides but much larger and totally silent. No way you would notice this thing if you didn’t happen to be looking in the right spot in the sky.”

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Aeronautical Services at CAA sent an email to staff that was obviously copied in error to the witness:

“Would anyone like to have a hack at this? Don’t waste to much time on it please!!”

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The witness then received a reply from Aeronautical Services:

“I have reviewed ADSB data from the time and location you reported. The only aircraft data we have is a Boeing 737 was in the area en-route from Palmerston North to Christchurch at 27,000 feet although this doesn’t appear to fit your description. CAA only reviews other radar data following an incident so I am unable to confirm if any other aircraft were present.

I am aware that the Wings over Wairarapa airshow are organising a flyby of a US Air force Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (pictured below) for the 27th February.

If this fits your description perhaps it was a trial run?”

(The email included an image of a B-52)

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The witness replied to Aeronautical Services:

“No definitely wasn’t a B52. It was massive and it looked very much like the attached pic I have found on internet. Seems similar craft have been spotted around the world with same description.

First I had heard of it but when I googled black triangle silent flying, a pic of the thing came up.

Now I don’t believe in little green men etc but I’d love to know what this was and how it could not have shown on radar. It easily the covered the school field beside our house at Heretaunga College.

I could clearly see it as it passed over head, completely silent. It was very impressive.

Happy to discuss but I’m not crackers and I’ve never seen any aircraft like it. I couldn’t see how it could fly with no wings or motors of any kind I could see. As I said, I’ve been flying for 30 years and am an enforcement officer so a credible witness.

I saw a clip posted on web of a large triangle above Porirua which is almost straight across from us in Trentham. This was in 2 August 2020. Similar size but it had lights whereas the thing I saw was pitch black. Too black against the sky which is how I noticed it.

I don’t believe in flying saucer rubbish but I have to admit I’m struggling with this.”