By Chris Mentillo, Copyright 2020
Odd & Not From This Earth Creatures:
Mysterious Creatures Discovered:
In February, the NZ Herald reported that an Auckland man was baffled after his mother discovered alien-like looking creatures on her kitchen floor.
The man, Tim Clerke, shared a video of the weird creatures too, asking people if they knew what they were. One person responded that it could be miniature bats, another said it could be mutant mice, but Clerke thought it was something more alien-like. However, insect expert, Eric Edwards, said it was possible the unknown specimens, could be rat-tailed maggots but was not entirely sure. The mysterious creatures have still not been identified, and so the debate continues.
A UFO Sighting?
In March, a bizarre UFO sighting, at a west Auckland Beach, left a couple terrified. A person was at Karekare Beach in March when they saw strange lights in the sky, Newshub reported. The person posted to Reddit: "We were on the beach, my boyfriend and I, and saw two bright orange-red lights far on the other end of the beach. In a matter of seconds, one of the lights started moving at full speed, in a straight line, no more than a little above the water, until directly in front of us."
The person said after two minutes, the strange object moved away, but then they spotted five more objects surrounding them at the beach. They fled, and then posted to social media to ask if anyone else had had a similar experience that day. Some said it could have been Chinese lanterns or meteorological equipment, but others believed it was evidence of something unexplainable, Newshub reported.
A Loud Rumble In The South:
Many people in the South Island were baffled by a loud rumble in May. Hundreds of users took to the Dunedin News page, to figure out what the sound was. The noise was reportedly heard along much of the Otago coastline, and inland as far as Outram, Middlemarch, Palmerston, and even Queenstown, the Otago Daily Times reported. A Dunedin resident, told the Herald it sounded like a cannon, firing on Anzac Day, and also thought it was an earthquake, but there was no shake. The next day, MetService confirmed there was a lightning strike off the coast of Otago, which would have been the likely cause of the loud rumbling noise. MetService communications meteorologist Lisa Murray said it was probably just what is called a squat thunderstorm, where the cold air from the land, was warmed quite a lot by the sea air.
Alien-Like Noises:
An Auckland resident reported hearing a mythical creature, making alien-like noises outside her Mt. Albert property in June. The resident posted a video of a spine-chilling noise that could be heard in her garden, Newshub reported. While some commentators were horrified, others thought it could just be a possum. Newshub eventually reported that a spokesperson from the Department of Conservation confirmed the alien-like noise was indeed a possum. A possum, normally make this sound, or do they?
Big Flaming Ball:
A woman in Auckland reported witnessing a big flaming ball, shooting over the city in July. Jamie Creedon said, she witnessed what she believed to be a meteorite over Albany, in north Auckland. "I have never seen anything like it. I thought, oh a shooting star, but it was massive, and I could hear the whirring sound," she told the NZ Herald. "It then disappeared completely. I thought I was going crazy."She was not the only one, Stardome Observatory in Auckland, confirmed, it had received several reports of the sighting. Reports suggest it was unusually low in the sky, which is unquestionably possible if it was taking longer to burn out, a spokesperson told the Herald.
Alien Meteor Sighting:
In September, a Paekakariki man reported spotting a meteor off the Kāpiti Coast, which was likely a meteor that was also spotted over Nelson. Gary Wheaton told Stuff: "It was like a streak of light streaming across the sky." He initially thought it was a flare from a boat, but realized it was far too high. Police confirmed they were called about what appeared to be a boat flare, but said it was more likely a meteor, Stuff reported.
Residents in Nelson city and the small town of Wakefield also reported seeing a meteor, with an orange tail blaze -- a path eastward across the region. Duncan Steel, of the Centre for Space Science Technology in Alexandra, said the meteor seen, would have been enough to light up the night sky, if it had happened later, and would be referred to by the technical term fireball. He told Stuff, that the meteor could have been a natural meteorite, but said it was also very likely, given the direction it was traveling, for it to have been a piece of space junk.
Strange Bangs:
In October, at the Bay of Plenty, residents posted to several Tauranga pages, reporting that loud, sudden bangs, were keeping them awake. They complained of hearing the noise late evening, the Bay of Plenty Times reported. One person said it sounded like a firecracker, while another said his dog would not come out from under the deck, as the noise echoed in the area. The Western Bay of Plenty Council said it had received multiple calls. Its compliance, monitoring manager, Alison Curtis said the noise was just the annual orchard bird scarers and was nothing for people to be frightened of. Curtis told the Bay of Plenty Times, it was a useful tool for orchardists to scare birds off the buds on kiwifruit orchards.
From mid-August to mid-October, is the time when orchardists use bird scarers frequently, as that is budding time on their orchards, she said.