It really looks like an airplane taking off, even commercial airplanes look exactly like that - a lightball when close to an airport.

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I have my own experience in Rotorua.

Holidaying there, we decided to go stargazing. At around midnight we drove up Mount Ngongotaha‎, Mountain Road. The road was locked off just past Aorangi Peak Restaurant, which youll find on google earth. You can even see the gates on street view, around 353 Mountain Road. We walked up mountain road through the tree lined part to the clearing just before the corners turning to the left. We laid down a blanket on the road confident it was blocked to traffic and laid down.

Fifteen minutes later, we see lights coming from the nearest left hand corner further up the road. We crapped our pants clearing up the blanket and hot chocolate from the road and moved to the roadside thinking it was a car.

Instead, the strobe like white flashing lights appeared to approach the corner, but a vehicle would have arrived by then. Instead it seemed like the lights were coming from something static around that corner but more on the grassed area. Once we realized it wasn't a car we promptly left in a silent frenzy.

If you look at the area on google earth you can see there are no other roads past the locked gates and the only building last that point is an antennae or transmission station. It is not a hunting area. I have no idea what we encountered but the feeling of dread hasn't left me since.