Public reports on likely meteor
12 September 2006

Readers report what they saw and heard after a sonic boom, likely caused by a meteor, was heard and felt through much of the country.


We live in Queenspark and just before 3pm there was a loud boom followed by what sounded like a big drum rolling across the roof at speed. Rushed outside to look around but saw nothing but the roar continued for a good ten seconds before rolling away over the next ten to fifteen seconds. It honestly sounded like the roof was about to be ripped off and my wife who is 38 weeks pregnant woke up thinking she was having a baby. It was a very frightening and baffling experience
Tim Sutherland

I was outside, looking at the sky admiring the sky as the weather was so beautiful. Then suddenly something caught my eye. it looked like a plane very brightly light , like a huge spark! it was shooting across the sky, from say the airport side towards the town. It only took a couple of seconds then it split into 2 and disappeared. I waited around for a couple of seconds, and nothing happened.. so I decided to go inside. like 30 seconds later, I heard the doors rattling, as though someone was banging against the door trying to get in/break into my house! It was a HUGE rumbling, and then it died off.
Chu May

We heard this explosion at around 2.55pm today, Tuesday 12th. It was incredibly loud and the whole house shook for a few seconds. We live in Huntsbury. We waited for sirens to sound, expecting something such as a silo at Lyttleton had blown up, or that a helicopter which, just seconds before had flown over us, had crashed. When there was no reaction whatsoever we assumed it must have been a controlled blasting of rocks on Huntsbury Hill. It sounded extremely close to us.
Francie Walshe

I live in Westburn Terrace, in Burnside. The explosion sounded like a sonic boom to me. It appeared to come from the south east, & was followed by a rumbling like thunder from the same direction. If it was heard in Hanmer it's likely to have been space junk or a meteor.
Richard Butler

Given the starkness of the 'noise', my son and I timed it @ 2:55 pm pretty well exactly. Windows in houses in Merivale also shook strongly (we have returned home now). All of which suggests a sound, pressure wave rather than say an earthquake. We shall just have to wait and see what, if anything, the radar folk say, as well as the seismologist crowd.
Bryden Black

I heard the explosion at approx 2.55pm. Living in Burnside not far from the airport; my first though was that a plane had crashed. About 10 minutes later my daughter phoned to see if I knew what it was. She works for the DHB and is based at Princess Margaret. Her and her fellow workers heard it as well.
Jane Beaven

We are located in two large buildings on Hazeldean Ave and both buildings occupants heard/felt this noise. As we are opposite the rail tracks we often are subjected to our building 'moving' and initially we all just assumed that this was it - but the event shook both out building to the point where quite a few people ran out on to the road to see what the cause was. I did think it was something on our roof as it did feel like it was overhead us.
Ruth Chapman

I am in Sockburn and our building rocked violently after we heard a massive almost explosion like sound?. Apparently according to the powers that be a meteorite has hit 20kms outside Hinds and has landed in a farmers paddock. Whether this is true or not I do not know?. But I sure do know I got one hell of a shock/fright when our building moved.
Karen Carson

Yep, I heard it. It was most unusual - sounded as if a large boulder fell on my roof (seriously, it was a bloody loud boom) and then continued to reverberate as if something was rolling down the pitch of the roof. Went outside to investigate. The noise was only gradually dying down, so I concluded it can't have been an aircraft breaking the sound barrier because that dies off quickly. This was something else up there. I live in St Albans. The noise was about above the Port Hills I thought but very, very high.
Dave McKinnon

Heard this in Lincoln, just around 3pm. Large boom followed by a rumbling. Apparently some contacts in Dunedin heard it also.
Nigel Joyce

I work in Forsyth Barr House on Colombo St on the 14th floor and was leaning against the window at the time (worst place to be). It rattled the entire building, but rattled our nerves a whole lot more!
Aimee Stewart

The loud explosion occurred at 2.55pm today. I live in Somerfield, close to the Cashmere hills, and the extremely loud bang occurred at the exact same time as the whole house shook, as if something very large had dropped onto the roof, in fact my immediate reaction was to think that something must have been thrown or dropped onto the roof. Whatever it was, it sounded like it was quite close to here. I ran outside, and there was an ongoing rumbling sound, that seemed to be coming from up in the sky, there was no cloud overhead at the time, and I could see nothing in the sky while the rumbling continued. The rumbling gradually died away.
Peter Archer

I am on the 16th level of the Clarendon Tower and around that time I was in an office talking to a colleague when we both heard the noise and felt the rattle although the building we stood still to feel if the building was moving if it was an earthquake but it wasn't. We thought it was the noise that the Building Maintenance Unit makes but the unit was safely tied up on the lower level of the building. We didn't think anything else of it and left it at that until we read your article on the internet.
Cindy Thom

The meteor was seen at approx 2.54pm as a glowing ball with a glowing long tail travelling at great speed from south to north, not that high, and seemed to be going down over or north of CHCH.
Don Young, Ashburton

Our company is in Hornby near Main South Road and the whole building shook.
Paul Durie

Yup sitting on Hereford St working, building shook and heard a roaring noise!
Gary Condon

We are on the fourth floor of a building in Cashel Street, Christchurch and after 3pm we heard a loud 'boom' and felt the whole building shake!
Don Sloan

Yes I heard the explosion at about 2.57pm. It shook our house violently from above and was extremely loud. I ran upstairs looking for any sign of smoke thinking a plane may have crashed nearby. I live in Halswell.
Russ Burke

I was outside in Bromley, Chrishchurch, and heard the noise that sounded like a plane engine so we were looking up expecting to see a plane. Then it sounded like something exploding and I felt some shock waves, like a small earthquake.
Sarah-Jane O'Connor