Jennie Velvin said everyone would think she had had one too many wines when she reported a UFO sighting on Christmas night.
But she was positive she had not touched the booze and that even her husband, John - normally a sceptic - could confirm there had been something strange in the sky above Ngamotu Rd, New Plymouth.
Mrs Velvin takes her dogs out the back of the house for toileting at 10pm every evening and is familiar with the night sky.
"I always look up to the sky to see what's there. Sometimes I see a satellite, like a slow-moving star, and we get a lot of helicopters."
But what she saw on this night was no earthly craft.
"This was nothing like I've seen in 30 years."
She described the object as a small, fast-moving fiery sun that was heading south towards Oakura.
"It was about the size of a circle you make with your arms.
"It was really low, it looked as though I could have reached out and touched it."
She said she yelled to her husband to come outside.
"He wouldn't believe me if I told him."
The mysterious object had already disappeared into cloud by the time he got there, but a second one the same as the first travelled past soon after, and he narrowly missed capturing it with his camera.
Mrs Velvin said she could understand if people were sceptical about her sighting but declared she was "not a kook".
She did not believe in aliens but was frustrated she could not explain the sighting, she said.
"I'm sure you'll get people saying it was shaped like a space ship, but I'm just determined to find someone who saw this thing, I don't know where it came from."
She said she remained open-minded.
"I don't think it's little grey men, but I've always been a believer there's something out there."
The Taranaki Daily News has been informed via email of a second sighting of a very similar description.
Chris Welson said he noticed three orange lights travelling over New Plymouth on Christmas night about 10.30pm.
"They were travelling pretty fast and the first two were reasonably close together while the third was a little further behind.
"They were going in a straight line heading south or southwest by the looks of things."
In February the Taranaki Daily News reported on sightings of strange lights in the sky that turned out to be floating lanterns.
- © Fairfax NZ News
