1978-06-01 - Christchurch (New Zealand) - Other

Mothercraft sighting over Christchurch NZ witnessed by 1000's in late 70's and as yet largely unreported

My interest stems from my knowledge and experience with one of the worlds largest and as yet unreported mass 'mothercraft' UFO sightings that occurred in Christchurch New Zealand in the late 70's.(Around the time of the Fogarty sightings in an Argosy aircraft near Kaikoura 80 miles north of Christchurch in Dec 1978) I estimate that over a 1000 people witnessed it. Couple this with the large amount of media coverage which occurred which means this event is researchable & verifiable....AND yet...it has never been properly reported!! I distinctly recall the Radio station I was listening to receiving streams of excited callers and it took over discussion for quite some time.

The Papers and TV also covered it however within a few days it had been "explained away" as 'reflections of a fishing fleet at sea' or parts of 'skylab' or 'venus' etc Description of event: At dusk a 'mothercraft' (2-3 football fields in size) flew over the city at a very low altitude as a very large dark shape with long trailing arms on either side, set against the fading light of an early evening sky.

I witnessed it with a girlfriend and actually stopped the car in a suburban street to watch it in awe. Reminiscent of the opening of the original Star Wars 1 movie without all the craft detail. The following night (Sunday) the hills where swarming with people (I estimate 30-40 groups of 3-5 people) waiting for it (with Binocs etc) to return. It could easily have been a scene out of a Spielberg movie! What makes my role in this a bit unique was that the night before (Friday) I had sat on the bonnet of my car for 15 mins and studied a smaller 3 tiered space craft (Clearly visible windows on each level, not dissimilar to NZ's Parliament 'Beehive') hover on the outskirts of the city approx 200 feet away across a field and just above some poplar trees (75-100 feet above the ground). Although I studied the windows intently there was no sign of life or movement at all. There was also no missing time or anything like that either.

It then proceeded to fly slowly over the western edge of the city in the exact opposite direction than that of the 'mothercraft' the following Sat night. I was in visual contact with it for over an hour.

I have a large artists impression (a quite accurate representation) of this smaller craft.

In short an event at least as big as any of the major UFO sightings worldwide and it has never made it into the annals of UFOlogy.....and it deserves to be.

I would be very interested to hear if anyone else has or does report this event. My bet is that given the numbers who witnessed the large craft a researcher would be able to uncover many of them with some publicity.

((NUFORC Note: Date is approximate. We would welcome reports from the other witnesses. An investigator could try to locate those witnesses, but it is easier if they simply come forward and record the sighting, as they remember it. PD))