I have provided information to Mt John Observatory that clearly establishes that this is a decaying rocket body from an old satellite launch and NOT a meteor. Decay was predicted and expected though the exact time or location of decay could be established till at or close to the time of occurrence. However the pass near the South Island was predicted.

Unfortunately owing to illness I was unable to be on standby in case of decay near here as I would normally have done. However it is possible that the decay would have been too south for me to observe here in Wellington area anyway.

For those who would like to be able to follow these type of events I recommend http://www.calsky.com which will also provide information on all sorts of other events concerning both man made and natural celestial objects.

I must acknowledge that I was alerted to this article in the Herald initially by another satellite observer (who did not observe the event either) as I was still recovering from illness and had not seen it.

This occurred through use of the satellite observers mailing list at http://www.satobs.org/seesat which is a useful means of communicating and comparing notes with other observers.