A Wellington man who's become the first to find a meteorite in New Zealand in 20 years, says it "still hasn't sunk in yet".
Jack Weterings was near the Mackenzie Country when he heard about plans to track down the space rock, which entered the atmosphere above Oamaru on March 13.
He thought, "why not get involved" and, as he made his way to join in he joked, "what if we found it straight away".
Never did he imagine he would.
Weterings had only just been allocated a grid to search when the dark stone "jumped out" at him.
"I had a feeling it was it," he told 1News. "It all happened so quickly."
Scientists are pinching themselves over the discovery.
It all began when cameras set up to track meteorites captured the fall, calculating it's approximate location.
The group behind that work was Fireballs Aotearoa, supported by volunteer scientists and keen members of the public.
Dennis Behan was part of that group and was sitting in his hot tub near Queenstown when he saw the rock shooting through the night sky.
The meteorite was found 170km from his home.
"It was exactly like a fairytale, I was fortunate enough to see it from my hot tub, capture it with my camera that was pointed in the right direction, help co-ordinate the search, find it in the search and then hold it in my hand, it was just amazing," he told 1News.
Marshall Palmer, who works in the Geology Department at Otago University, said it's the first time he's held a meteorite that he's seen in the field.
He says while four, 100 gram meteorites usually hit New Zealand every year, the last time one was found was 2004, in Auckland.
At the end of 2022, around 150 people took part in a search near Mosgiel, to no avail.
He couldn't believe how quickly this latest rock was found.
"I expected we would get to the end of the day, morale would be down and we'd leave the day knowing where it isn't but it was the complete opposite," he said.
He told 1News he was still getting organised to begin the 300 hectare search when he got news of Wetering's discovery.
"I was still planning the movements of the team in my car and I get this message on my phone and I'm like, 'No, it can't be...'
"Just crazy," he said.
The meteorite's believed to have come from an orbit between the earth and the sun.
Scientists were looking forward to analysing it further, to learn more.
"We will probably try and get a 3D model of [the meteor's] shape, we can do some more non-destructive tests and then we will cut a piece off an do some analyses in the lab," said Palmer.
They hope to then classify it before giving it a name, and finding out where it finds in the world of meteorites.
But for now, they are just happy to have found it in what could have been a needle in a haystack.
— additional reporting by Laura James
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