18 Mar 2025

The hunt for the Hawkes Bay meteorite

From Afternoons, 1:25 pm on 18 March 2025
A fireball which landed in Hawkes Bay in March 2025, as captured by a Fireballs Aotearoa meteor camera in Rotorua.

A fireball which landed in Hawkes Bay in March 2025, as captured by a Fireballs Aotearoa meteor camera in Rotorua. Photo: Fireballs Aotearoa

New Zealand is the landing place for a growing number of meteorites, and Hawkes Bay is the latest focus.

A fireball hurtled towards the ground last Wednesday night, and based on eyewitnesses and camera footage, may have caused a meteorite to land somewhere within a 600 hectare patch of private land.

Now the hunt is on - if it's spotted, it will be the eleventh one found in New Zealand.

Steve Wyn-Harris is a regular contributor to our show and he's also an executive member of Fireball Aotearoa.

He lives just a half hour drive from where the meteorite may have landed.

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