Rotorua UFO 'sighting' goes viral on YouTube

Sightings of unidentified flying objects in Rotorua skies have sparked an online discussion about paranormal activity in the Bay of Plenty.

A video uploaded to YouTube claims to have images of UFOs above Rotorua. It has had more than 131,500 hits since being uploaded by someone with the username Horsefarmer1000.

The video blurb states it was taken between 2am and 4am three weeks ago.

Ufocus NZ director Suzanne Hansen said it was hard to comment without talking to those who shot the video.

Ufocus is an independent UFO research network based in Tauranga and Ms Hansen said the video seemed to capture meteors.

"The larger lights are obviously closer, but the slow motion makes them look bigger than they probably are.

"They are unlikely to be aircraft landing lights as Tauranga Airport is not active at that time. I don't know what they are and would need to speak to the witness and visit the site, to get a clearer picture of the surrounding area."

Ms Hansen said although the video information labelled the UFOs as crafts, they were just unknown lights at this stage.

"Having said this, we are currently investigating sightings in areas between Tauranga and Rotorua which involve a landed object, not a conventional aircraft, objects hovering over farmland, not aircraft and a UFO sighted from an aircraft.

"These sightings are still under investigation and we cannot comment further until this is completed."

Ms Hansen said New Zealand was experiencing an upswing of sightings at present.