Watch: Meteor tears across the sky over New Zealand’s Wellington

(Screengrab from a video shared on YouTube by Traffic Updates Horowhenua Kapiti Wellington)

Residents of North Island in Wellington, New Zealand, were stunned by the sight of a ‘rare’ meteor tearing across the sky on Thursday afternoon. Witnesses reported seeing a bright flash in the sky and hearing a loud boom at around 2 pm, reports The Guardian.

Several residents also reported hearing a low rumbling sound, rattling windows, hair standing on end and smoke in the sky.

The meteor, believed to be over 3-feet wide, was captured in a plumber’s dashcam footage. “We were just driving to a job in Shannon when I saw a blue line falling in the sky, then a massive bright light,” said plumber Curtis Powell, “I then realised my dashcam was rolling and saved the video. It was pretty amazing. Definitely once-in-a-lifetime spectacle.”

Otago Museum director Ian Griffin pointed out one important difference between the meteor event yesterday and the one that occurred 23 years ago – technology.

"What's really exciting about this is that we live in an era where people have recorded it on dashcams or security cameras at home," Griffin said.

"If we get that footage we may potentially be able to figure out the path of the object throughout the sky and possibly, if it survived its fall, to figure out where it landed."