Wellington night sky lit up by ‘meteorite’ flying overhead

Wellington night owls were treated to a special sight last night when a suspected meteorite lit up the sky.

Weather company PredictWind caught the moment on its camera at Heretaunga Boating Club in Petone.

The video shows a bright white and green streak soaring across the night sky over the harbour around 11.25pm, before quickly fizzling out.

“I saw it this morning and I thought, ‘Oh, this is so amazing’,” said Nick Olson, marketing business development manager at PredictWind.

While the company is focused on global marine forecasting, its cameras have picked up “all sorts of crazy things”, from lightning strikes to a man with a knife at Murray’s Bay.

But Olson had “never seen anything like that before, that’s for sure”.

“Everyone’s calling it a meteorite.”

The International Meteor Organisation shared to Facebook early this morning that an 11-tonne Chinese rocket re-entered the atmosphere at 12.39am UTC (1.39am NZT).

“Keep an eye on the sky!” the post said.

The rocket re-entered the atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean, 800km south of New Zealand, according to the US Space Force.

Newstalk ZB caller Carl was driving on State Highway 1 in Levin when the meteorite felt like it was right in front of him.

“I thought I was going a bit insane.”

Carl saw green and red in the sky.

“It was like a big ball with a massive tail behind it.”

Caller Sue saw the moment near Whitby, describing “a red ball and then green and white and blue. It was absolutely spectacular”.

“I’ve never [seen] anything in my 75 years, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

She said it lasted a few seconds and left behind a pale white streak.

“It looked like a giant skyrocket going horizontal.”

Truck driver Ivan was going through the old State Highway 1 route near Plimmerton when he saw bright “lime, slime green” shooting across.

“It had a really long green tail.”

On popular Facebook group Vic Deals, one user posted, “I just saw the most mental-looking shooting star over Wellington”.

Over 200 users commented, describing a “comet”, “giant laser knife”, and a “flying flame ball”.

One commentor joked: “It’s Captain Marvel.”

Users on Reddit said they’d seen the bright streak from Christchurch to Wainuiomata.

Sammy Carter is a journalist for the New Zealand Herald covering news in the Wellington region. She has previously worked at the Rotorua Daily Post.