South Island rates mention in UFO cases

Where there’s the men in black, there’s always UFOs.

The declassified CIA files have brought to the world the agency’s fascination with psychic phenomena, aliens and paranormal weirdness.

New Zealand appears to have rated two mentions — both to do with a well-known UFO sighting in the South Island in December 1978.

The CIA files referring to the NZ event — filmed in colour by an Australian television crew — were clipped from Parapsychology Abstracts International and Second Look, which carried a story on CIA mind control in the same issue.

Parapsychology Abstracts International reported an academic paper which studied every frame and could offer no rational explanation.

In contrast, a letter writer to Second Look said the lights were those of a Japanese fishing boat.