Rotorua UFO sighting video mystery (+ video)

A still from the footage of an alleged UFO, which was reportedly taken about 9.30pm on June 2. Photo / supplied

Claimed sightings of a UFO over Rotorua have been posted on video-sharing website YouTube.

Someone who goes by the username Horsefarmer1000 posted the video on the popular website on June 5 and in the information attached claims the footage was taken about 9.30pm on June 2.

Rotorua Astronomical Society vice-president Brian Hurren says the video - which is about 90 seconds long - may be anything from an out-of-focus star to an unusual plasma ball.

On the website the man said he saw a strange light above his farm and drove towards it to get a better look.

"[I] drove up the farm in a truck and seen a large object bigger then my truck hovering 20 meters off the ground at 2000 feet away," he wrote. [It] was just like a big ball of energy pulsing colours of yellow, pinky, purple."

He said as the object moved it changed shape - when it moved up it went flat and when it went down it would be more rounded.

The man told The Daily Post yesterday he was unavailable to comment because he was too busy.

Mr Hurren described the video as "interesting".

He said he wasn't sure what the object was.

"It just looked like an out-of-focus star," he said, adding it could also have been a plasma ball - a ball of gas - but they were rarely seen in New Zealand skies.

Mr Hurren said he would need more information about the object to be able to decide what it was.

People often assumed unfamiliar objects were UFOs.

"There is usually a reasonable explanation for everything," he said.

The sighting comes two months after Rotorua's Craig Baird saw what he thought could have been a UFO over Waikite Valley.

Mr Baird took photos of the unidentified flying object on March 31.

He said whatever it was seemed to take off from somewhere around the Waikite ranges or further away, between 6.30am and 6.45am.

Mr Baird said the "thing" seemed to stop and hover for about two minutes when it reached the clouds.