'Daddy of all booms' rattles south

The hunt is on for fragments of a spectacular meteor that shot through the skies above Canterbury yesterday, causing a sonic boom that shook buildings and terrified residents.

Emergency services were flooded with calls from worried people after the booming noise and shaking across the region, while some reported seeing a bright light or fireball in the sky shortly before 3pm.

Initial reports were that the meteor might have landed in North Canterbury or near the small mid-Canterbury township of Hinds, but no evidence of a meteorite (a meteor that has landed) was found. People across the region were on the lookout last night for any remnants on the ground.

Hanmer Springs policeman Senior Constable Chris Hughey described seeing a bright red dot trailed by a white vapour trail coming down at a 30- degree angle.

"It looked like about the length of my fingers from a distance. But it was a long way from Hanmer Springs. It was the first time I ever saw one come down like that. It was moving!"

Rangiora couple Arthur and Rae Loffhagen were travelling in their car about 50km inland from Christchurch when the meteor shot over them and appeared to head towards the ground.

"My husband pulled over and here was this flashing thing going at an unbelievable speed. It was silvery white with these beautiful purply red colours in front," Mrs Loffhagen said. "If it had been much lower, it would have gone through the driver's side."

Mt John Observatory resident superintendent Alan Gilmore said the meteor could have been the size of a basketball or bigger and might have been travelling 10-20km per second when it hit the Earth's atmosphere.

"Clearly it was a reasonably big object to produce such a sonic boom."

The stress of hitting the atmosphere could cause the meteor to break up before hitting the ground, he said.

"Often it will disintegrate into a great cloud of smoke. Often there is the situation where people some distance from the meteor believe they have seen it reach the ground."

The Institute of Geological and Nuclear Science (GNS) reported a sonic boom and ground shaking at two of its Canterbury instrument sites just before 3pm.

"The GeoNet instruments have detected both surface and sound waves. They show that the disturbance is not caused by an earthquake, but is more consistent with an object flying across Canterbury from a north-westerly direction at greater than the speed of sound. It is not known whether the object has been vapourised, or plunged into the ocean."

Kevin Graham was working in his garage workshop in Rolleston, 22km southwest of Christchurch, when he heard the boom.

His first thought was it was a September 11 anniversary attack, he said.

He spoke by phone to his wife in the Christchurch suburb of Addington who had run outside because she thought the Addington Raceway stand was going to collapse.

"I ran outside because I thought my place was going to collapse as well," Mr Graham said. He said the sound shook the garage and he could feel shockwaves in the air.

"It started off with a little boom then a real massive boom. And I mean massive - like the daddy of all booms," he said. "I was wondering what happened and I thought, 'Oh, September 12', because we're a day ahead of the States."

Sales representative Kylie Andrew was in her Christchurch office when the boom hit and was perplexed.

"It felt like an earthquake, but we knew it wasn't an earthquake because of the sound of it. It was a rolling thundery sound. I thought it might have been a container falling off a truck."

Emergency services were struggling to explain the event as Christchurch police fielded 100 calls in 15 minutes from worried residents. Christchurch Fire Communications said people reported windows rattling and the air "shaking".

- additional reporting: NZPA