APNZ

There have been an "unprecedented" number of UFO sightings reported in the North Island over the past two months, UFO watchers say.

And aliens may even have visited Northland in the past five weeks, with one man reporting seeing a UFO land in the region, Suzanne Hansen, director from Ufocus NZ research network said.

She said: "He's a very credible source. He saw an object that had landed and said it was definitely not an aircraft or like anything else he had seen.

"I've got 30 (UFO/UAP) reports on my desk at the moment from the upper North Island and Northland from the past couple of weeks that we're yet to process [on top of the many others] ... It's unprecedented."

Maungakaramea resident Charles Gillard reported seeing strange lights hovering above the Tangihua ranges just after 4 am yesterday.

Mr Gillard said the white and blueish lights were definitely not a helicopter or plane and darted about at speed for several minutes before simply vanishing.

"I've never seen anything like it before, but it definitely wasn't somebody with a torch or vehicles as it was above the skyline, not on the hills," he said.

Inquiries could not find any helicopters or planes operating in the area at that time yesterday morning.

Ms Hansen said Mr Gillard's sighting was similar to others reported recently in Northland and Ufocus would be looking into all such reports made to its website www.ufocusnz.org.nz.

"Researchers we work with in Australia have reported the same things happening there with what we call a "UFO Flap" [an outbreak of UFO sightings] there as well," Ms Hansen said.

However, the NZ Skeptics (New Zealand Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) says UFO sightings can be easily explained, usually by natural phenomena.

NZ Skeptics spokeswoman Vicki Hyde said despite the "unprecedented" number of UFO sightings recently this was the first the public had heard of the situation.

"The problem with UFO sightings is that there are a such a huge number of possible explanations for them.

"Something like 80-90 per cent are people mistaking things like Venus for UFOs."

APN