{"id":609324,"date":"2026-07-29T03:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T03:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/609324\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T03:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T03:38:14","slug":"thought-it-was-a-plane-on-fire-large-meteor-sightings-stir-delight-in-new-zealand-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/609324\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Thought it was a plane on fire\u2019: large meteor sightings stir delight in New Zealand | New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two large suspected meteors have flashed and boomed across New Zealand\u2019s skies in recent days, delighting those who glimpsed the celestial events and sending some animals into a frenzy.<\/p>\n

A fireball was seen over parts of the North Island just after 10.20pm on Tuesday night, after a separate one streaked across South Island\u2019s skies on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

Footage captured on dashcams, security cameras and specialist meteor cameras showed North Island\u2019s skies lighting up with a large flash, with dozens of people taking to social media to describe the \u201chuge boom\u201d that accompanied it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely insane. I thought it was a plane on fire,\u201d one commentator wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was huge, the ball was orange with a purple tail. We saw black soot coming off it,\u201d wrote another. One person said it was the biggest they had seen: \u201cIt had a tail that stretched most of the sky and had brilliant colours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another wrote said they heard \u201ca loud low rumble\u201d that disturbed birds in the area, while one witness said their \u201ccows went nuts\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe heard and saw it in Ruby Bay [and] wondered what the noise was, like someone hit a wheelie bin with a stone,\u201d another said.<\/p>\n

Steve Wyn-Harris, who recently became director of Fireballs Aotearoa<\/a>, an organisation made up of geologists, astronomers and citizen scientists who track meteors and meteorites, was relaxing in his spa in Hawke\u2019s Bay when the sky lit up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw a big flash in the sky and thought, \u2018No, that can\u2019t be a fireball \u2013 this would be too good to be true\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He initially thought it was lightning, until his phone started pinging with eyewitness reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore importantly, what\u2019s exciting about this is people heard the sound, the sonic boom,\u201d he said, which means the meteor reached relatively close to the ground.<\/p>\n

On Sunday night, South Island residents reported a similar streak of light.<\/p>\n

Fireballs Aotearoa is encouraging residents in the lower North Island to keep their eyes peeled for debris \u2013 called meteorites \u2013 from Tuesday\u2019s suspected meteor and to contact the group if they find anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook out for a black stone that wouldn\u2019t ordinarily be there,\u201d Wyn-Harris said.<\/p>\n

Just 10 confirmed meteorites have been found in New Zealand in the past 150 years, but many more will have fallen and never been found. Retrieving one can be difficult: New Zealand has a small population that is unlikely to spot most meteors entering the atmosphere, has rugged and dense terrain that can hinder the hunt for debris, and there is a lack of infrastructure to help triangulate the location of a landing.<\/p>\n

But that is changing, Wyn-Harris said. Fireballs Aotearoa has 200 cameras set up around the country, and an increase in security cameras and dashcams could help efforts to retrieve meteorites.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got some of the best coverage in the world, which is why we\u2019re seeing these things now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two large suspected meteors have flashed and boomed across New Zealand\u2019s skies in recent days, delighting those who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[270],"tags":[18,19,17,133,451],"class_list":["post-609324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117001186038002798","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}