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2005 Sightings
Date: 2 July 2005
Time: 6.00 - 6.30 am
Location: Waihopai Valley, Marlborough,
South Island
Description:
The witness states, "I live in the Waihopai Valley, Marlborough.
On the 2nd July 2005, at six in the morning, my daughter and I were driving
the 26 km down the winding gravel road through mountainous terrain, on
our way to Christchurch. It was pitch black, with no moon or stars, as
we followed the river for a while approaching Netherwood Station.
Looking ahead, we saw an extremely
bright, oblong, pulsating light hovering about a couple of hundred feet
above the hills further along the valley. The object had lights flashing
from one side to the other - red, blue, green and white - and they would
flash in sequence across the oblong, changing colours as they went.
Suddenly, the light came straight
towards us. I thought, "Oh shit! Leave us alone!" I was scared
and concerned for my daughter. The object made no sound as it approached
us really rapidly, and the lights were about a thousand times brighter
than helicopter or plane lights. We turned a corner heading up the cutting
away from it. It circled around following us and came up on our left hand
side. It is a narrow road and as we went in behind a hill, it would go
around behind it, and reappear over the top or around the other side.
This went on for some time, and I was trying hard to concentrate on the
driving, as it was dark and the road is winding. I was trying not to say
anything that would frighten my daughter. As we went up a cutting, it
disappeared behind a hill, and as we drove around the hillside, it caught
up with us again from the other side and appeared straight out in front
of us. The glow from the object illuminated the entire gully and lit up
all the pine trees.
Fearing for our safety, I thought to myself that if we got to the next house and we could still see the object, I would go into the farmhouse. When we got to the farm, we looked back and couldn’t see the light any more, so we continued driving on down the road thinking it had gone. However when we looked, there was the light again. It seemed as if it had somehow read our minds, or ‘knew’ we were afraid, because now it suddenly stayed further away from us, over the ridges of the hills between the Waihopai and Wairau valleys. But it still followed us at a distance for a full half hour all the way down the valley towards Blenheim. We continued driving out of the valley and the object stayed hovering over the hills until we eventually lost sight of it.
For the following two or three
days my daughter was sick with headaches, sore eyes and nausea, with a
lack of appetite. I did not have these symptoms and I can only put this
down to the fact that I was driving and concentrating on the road, whereas
she was watching the very bright object, sometimes quite close, for most
of the journey. We did not have any missing time. After this event, I
rang a helicopter pilot who flies in the Waihopai Valley a lot and he
said it would have been too dark to have been flying a helicopter in the
valley at that time."
More sightings up the Waihopai Valley in 2008: Click Here
Date: 13 June 2005
Time: 8.30 pm, and throughout
the night
Location: At sea off the coast
of the Bay of Plenty, North Island
Description:
On the evening of 13 June 2005, two charter boats were traveling off the
coast of Plate Island in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, en route to Port
Whakatane; the Enchanter, with one on board, was five kilometres ahead
of the Pursuit, with six on board. Around 8.30 pm both skippers watched
a large pulsing orb of red light (no radar contact) to the south, as it
followed both vessels to Port Whakatane.
During a three hour period, a light appeared on top of the large light
and appeared to fly off along the coastline traveling east along the Ohope
Beach until it was out of sight. The main light, that appeared to be about
the size of a house, but difficult to really tell at night, stayed above
the Matata area for the rest of the night, according to the Pursuit crew.
The seven men on both vessels were very nervous, never having seen such
a light before. Both skippers noted that it was traveling at the same
speed as their boats. At one time it appeared to come closer to the Enchanter
and then it moved away again. This was noted by both skippers, who were
in radio contact all the time.
When the Enchanter was adjacent to Whale Island the light was on the coast
side of the boat and the light disappeared soon after but the Pursuit
could still see it now nearer to them. They anchored for the remainder
of the night on the west side of Whale Island and noted that the light
appeared to move nearer Matata and they all thought it hovered over the
hills above Matata for the remainder of the night.
The evening was overcast and cold with light winds. The light was described
as being as bright as a red brake light on a car.
UFOCUS NZ comment: UFO sightings often occur
around the time of seismic or volcanic activity. Matata, the coastal rural area mentioned in this sighting, sits near a major fault line from the Central
Plateau volcanic region, and White Island (an active volcano) sits nearby off
the Bay of Plenty coastline. In 1987, a major earthquake measuring 6.3
on the Richter scale, struck the Bay of Plenty leaving a 7km crack known
as 'the Edgecumbe Fault' that opened in the Rangitaiki Plains near Edgecumbe
and Matata.
In May 2005, shortly before this sighting, floodwaters ravaged the township of Matata, causing landslides
and mudslips and destroying many houses.
From early February right through to June 2005, hundreds of earthquakes
(swarms) occurred near Matata. They were very shallow, between 5 and 10
kilometres deep.
These swarms were still occurring at the time of the
above sighting.
Date: 8 February 2005
Time: 8pm
Location: Taupo, North Island
Description: The witnesses, 'Sharonn', her mother, and sister, were traveling
by car approaching the lakefront in the city of Taupo, arriving from the
Napier-Taupo Highway. Being Summer, it was still light, with the sun was
just starting to go down. The sky was generally clear, apart from two
long, narrow, and clearly defined cloudbanks to the north. There was only
a very slight breeze.
Sharon's sister drew their
attention to an unusual shaped cloud at a low altitude. The whitish 'cloud'
was rounded and thicker at one end, tapering off towards the other end
like a teardrop turned on its side, or a short comet-like shape. It was
in a patch of clear sky between the two layers of clouds. They then spotted
another identical 'cloud' some kilometres away from the first, and realized
that both the 'clouds' were actually steadily moving directly towards
each other - one moving faster than the other in a northeasterly direction
towards Taupo, and the other in a southwesterly direction towards the
ski resort town of Turangi. Each 'cloud' was moving horizontally, with
the rounded end facing forwards, and a short tail behind. Apart from the
two distant cloudbanks, there were no other clouds in the sky in that
area. They were moving at a speed that was not consistent with the calm
weather at the time.
The women quickly stopped the
car on the Taupo lakefront and used binoculars to observe the 'clouds'
more closely. They were able to see a dark shape or object slightly protruding
from the rounded front of each 'cloud'. The 'clouds' continued moving
slowly across the sky towards one another until one was directly above
the other over Lake Taupo. They both hovered stationary in that position
for a few seconds. From their place of observation the women described
the clouds as being, "
very close to each other, almost touching
- only a tiny gap (visible) between them". The clouds surrounding
the objects did not change size or shape and remained well-defined. The
'cloud' or object moving towards the township of Taupo then began to move
off quite quickly and within a few seconds just seemed to suddenly disappear
or dematerialize from sight, which the witnesses thought was unusual,
considering it was traveling towards them and should have remained visible
for some time. The trio observed the other 'cloud' or object for a couple
more minutes as it headed steadily away southwest, before it eventually
disappeared from view. No sound of aircraft was heard throughout the sighting
as one of the 'clouds' approached the observers.
The three women were at a loss
to explain what they had just seen, but they believed that the 'clouds' or objects were performing/moving in a way that was not typical of either
aircraft or normal clouds.

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