Verdun Waghorn, a Queenstown resident, is curious to know if the truth is out there. Just around two weeks ago, he was looking for rocks by the Dart River bridge along Glenorchy-Routeburn road.
At noon, he managed to take 20 photographs of the surrounding view to show his family. Scanning through his photos in the evening, he noticed a dark shape in the in the western sky heading towards the Humboldt Mountains.
When he took the pictures, he was sure he neither spotted nor heard an aircraft. Waghorn has puzzled since then about the object he caught on one of the photos.
In response to our inquiry, a spokeswoman of Airways New Zealand confirmed no aircraft in the area at that time, based on air traffic control record.
Waghorn explained that it was quite strange because the mysterious aerial object only appears in one of the photos, so he’s ruling out a speck of dirt or insect on his lens.
Waghorn has always been sceptical about stories involving UFOs, but now he sympathises with people who claim to have seen UFOs. However, he believes that there’s a reasonable, rational explanation. He doesn’t think of green men from space, but whatever he caught on one of his photos is such a weird shape.
He said that it doesn’t look a bird to him, and this gets him baffled.
Is the object in the picture flying? Is it rare? Or just a sand fly?
It could be anything. The fact he didn’t notice until he looked later suggests that it wasn’t that noticeable at the time. A bird at an odd angle/mid stroke of it’s wings or sandfly are most likely. I’ve had birds ruin a perfect photo, but a few seconds later they are gone and I can try again. The area looks ideal for birds of prey circling in the heat above the rocks. Would be cool if it was a UFO though!
this is old new he must bot be getting paid enough for it google.co.uk/search?q=Queenstown+waghorn+ufo+Humboldt+Mountains
What a wonderful name! Verdun Waghorn! ( A mighty warrior!) Sorry I watch too much tv!
It is hard to determine without a close up. I took a similar photo a couple of years ago, and this shape was on only one shot, but I put it down to a fleeting speck of dust.
Who knows?
It’s obviously one of those advertising planes towing a sign that says “UFO”.
just because he rules out a bug or dirt doesn’t mean it’s not a bird.
Too far out to say what it is.
Not to be a stinker, but, the fact that it appears in only one of the twenty photos might suggest either that it is an imperfection/smudge/bad data, or, that it was a vessel travelling so fast that it was only there for a brief moment.
The fact that he apparently states that the object was heading towards the mountains, and it only appears in one pic, puts his credibility in question !