IT was a conference experience that was out of this world.
Rotorua's Convention Centre was abuzz this weekend with talk of aliens and alternate dimensions.
The 2007 UFOCUS New Zealand Future Perspectives conference covered everything from mind control technology to abduction experiences and alien implants.
About 250 delegates heard
speakers from the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
One of nine guest speakers was senior air traffic controller from Hamilton International Airport Graeme Opie.
Mr Opie has had an interest in UFO phenomenon since the early 1970s when he heard of mysterious lights seen by colleagues at Wellington Airport.
In 1995 he had his own spectacular UFO sighting. It was from the Hamilton International Airport control tower.
"I just happened to be looking in the right place at the right time when I saw it. I have only seen one but I know controllers and pilots who have also seen them. That's when it really fired up my interest."
Rotorua and the Central North Island's volcanic plateau is a known hot spot for UFO activity. Mr Opie says many sightings in New Zealand are around known fault lines. The Bay of Plenty is no exception.
Mr Opie is now head researcher and sighting report investigator for UFOCUS New Zealand, an organisation set up in 2000 to investigate suspected UFO sightings in New Zealand.
"Since the UFOCUS website (www.ufocusnz.org.nz) has been operating many people have been able to come forward with news of their sightings and not feel like they will be ridiculed," he told the Daily Post.
With 39 years' experience as an air traffic controller and a pilot Mr Opie has a good idea of what should and shouldn't be in the sky.
He says he is still not 100 per cent positive about the existence of alien life forms.
"Even now I'm a wee bit of a sceptic - it's good to be a sceptic, it gives you an open mind. I'll only be 100 per cent when somebody comes down and shows me through one of these things and I knew that they weren't from earth.
"We would be pretty arrogant if we said we were the only species in the universe."
