Lightning
© Allan Scadden
Stargazers could be mistaken for thinking the night sky had filled with flash photography last night after a series of 'heat' lightning strikes off the Wairarapa coast were seen across Kapiti, Wellington and as far north as Masterton.

Karori man Stuart Cunningham noticed the flashes in the sky when he was walking to his house about 8pm. They were ''non directional'' and he originally thought someone nearby was doing flash photography. But when he logged on to Facebook he realised people as far away as Christchurch were also reporting seeing it.

While some speculated the flashes came from alien life forms coming to earth, he believed it was more likely a meteor shower.

MetService forecaster Dan Corbett said 124 strikes were recorded between about 6pm and midnight after a trough of cold air moved over relatively warm waters off the Wairarapa coast creating the conditions for the lightning storm.

Nearly all of the strikes happened out to sea and because they were so far offshore they struck without sound.

Source: The Dominion Post