Mysterious lights seen hovering above Thames this week have reignited local fascination with unexplained aerial phenomena — and drawn comparisons to the region’s most famous UFO case more than half a century ago.
Te Aroha local Amy May Raupi said she first noticed the lights while night fishing along the Thames Coast with her partner.
“My partner and I usually go night fishing up the Thames coast, and there’s not really a lot to do while you’re waiting for the fish to bite, so I generally just find myself watching the sky,” she said.
Raupi said she filmed the lights on two consecutive nights starting on Wednesday evening.
“On Thursday (6 November) night I spotted those lights around 10:30 or 11pm. At first, I thought they were satellites, but they kept moving — slowly, from right to left — over a couple of hours. Around 1:30am they’d shifted significantly further away from the two bright stars I’d been using as a reference point. By the time I started filming at 1:43am, there were more of them, moving almost in a circle above Thames — maybe over the Kopu Hikuais.”
She said the objects gradually moved before disappearing completely.
Videos she captured show several bright, pulsing lights in the night sky — too erratic to be aircraft, and not in the usual straight-line formation associated with Starlink satellites.
Witnesses across the upper North Island
Raupi wasn’t alone. Posters on the popular UFO Sightings NZ Facebook group reported similar lights the same night, visible as far away as Auckland.
“Omg I watched the same thing from Auckland — looked like they were coming from the stars or behind them,” one commenter wrote. “Some went really bright, others not so much, and then disappeared completely.”
While some suggested Starlink satellites, others disagreed.
“I don’t believe Starlink travels like that,” one person wrote. “Whenever I’ve seen them, they’re in a straight formation, one after another, moving steadily across the sky — not circling like this.”
Other suggested a meteor shower and the Auckland Star Dome Observatory has been approached for comment.
A region steeped in UFO lore
The Hauraki–Coromandel region has a surprisingly rich history of unexplained aerial sightings. The most famous occurred in 1969 near Ngatea, when farmer Bert O’Neil discovered a strange, flattened patch of grass and metallic residue on his paddock.
O’Neil described finding a perfectly circular “burn mark” on his property, with the grass inside turned white and brittle, and the soil beneath appearing glazed as if exposed to extreme heat. Samples taken from the site were examined by scientists at the time, including researchers from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), but no clear explanation was found.
Dubbed the “Ngatea UFO Landing,” the case made national headlines, with hundreds visiting the farm to view the site. It remains one of New Zealand’s best-known unexplained phenomena and has been revisited by UFO researchers for decades.
Whether last week’s Thames lights were satellites, aircraft, or something more mysterious remains unknown — but the sighting continues a long tradition of sky-watching in the Hauraki skies.
For Raupi, the experience was simply unforgettable.
“Whatever they were, they didn’t move like anything I’ve seen before,” she said. “It definitely makes you wonder what’s really out there.”
If you spotted strange lights over Thames or elsewhere on the Coromandel last week, the Hauraki Coromandel Post would like to hear from you. Email editor@hcpost.news.
