Somewhere in the Skies - The Robed Beings of Auckland: New Zealand’s Strangest UFO Encounter

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

In 1978, a young woman in Auckland, New Zealand, stopped her motorcycle to watch strange lights overhead, only to see two robed beings staring back from inside a wedge-shaped craft. In this episode of Just Another Tin Foil Hat, Zelia Edgar explores the eerie “Auckland Anomaly,” connecting it to patterns of light phenomena, phantom monks, and John Keel’s theories of perception and reality. Subscribe to Just Another Tin Foil Hat on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JustAnotherTinFoilHat #JustAnotherTinFoilHat #ZeliaEdgar #HighStrangeness #Anomalies #AucklandAnomaly #NewZealandMystery #JohnKeel #SomewhereInTheSkies #PodcastCommunity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You said this place was steps from the water. We just haven't found the steps yet. How much did we save? Enough. Enough to get lost. Or you could book a stay with Hilton. Welcome to your ocean front room. Just steps from the water.

The Hilton sale is on now. Book on Hilton.com or the Hilton app and save up to 20% to get the stay you expected. When you want savings, not surprises. It matters where you stay. Hilton, for the stay. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building.

Fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank. The young woman stopped her motorcycle and watched as the lights she'd been observing overhead came even closer, revealing an object with what appeared to be a glass panel on one side. Inside the object, two being stood, watching her. Welcome to just another tinfoil hat with your host, Zilia Edgar. Join Zilia as she walks us through some of the most bizarre UFO cases and incidents of high strangeness. Today we will be discussing the fascinating case of the Auckland anomaly, but before I get to that, I have some extremely exciting news that I have to tell you guys.

Now, I'm sure that many of you are already devout listeners, as I am, of Ryan Sprague's just simply fantastic podcasts somewhere in the skies. if not super duper highly recommended. Genuinely, one of my favorite UFO pod, one of my favorite anomalies podcasts, actually just one of my favorite podcasts hands down, which makes what I'm about to say here like even more surreal. Somewhere in the Skies is now the official home of the audio version of just another tinfoil hat. So every other Friday you can tune in and listen to me talking about classic cases of the very finest high strangeness. the first release was one of my all-time favorite cases. You guys probably already know what I'm about to say.

The Simonton Encounter, yes, also known as the case of the alien pancakes. So there's a link to that from Spotify in the description. However, you can listen to Somewhere in the Skies your preferred podcast enjoying platform. And you absolutely should. This leads to another very exciting piece of news. The most recent episode of Somewhere in the Skies, at least as of this recording and release, Ryan spoke with Michael Huntington, Anomalies Researcher extraordinaire,

and filmmaker Joseph Tury, about their new documentary, Grand Tower, UFOs, and other high strangeness. And I had the absolute privilege to be interviewed as part of that documentary. I'm just so excited. I mean, this is a fantastic moment for me to really take just a minute and say thank you to,

you know, everyone, like other researchers and investigators who have included me in their project, and expressed an interest in, you know, my particular brand of research, as well as all of you, you know, anyone here who has been a subscriber for a long time, people who are new to the channel, even if you're just wandering by and my videos caught your eye, just thank you so much, you know, for being here and expressing an interest in all this really bizarre stuff that, you know, in my opinion is an important part of what it means to be human to kind of tackle some of these questions about why I do people see things that seem to be impossible. So just really, you thank you so much for kind of

sharing this interest with me. And yeah, just super duper excited about both of these pieces of news. Oh, and also too, Ram Tower, UFO's another high stranger's not yet available to stream. Sorry to keep you all in suspense. But don't worry, I'll keep you in the loop as to when it's available. In the meantime, go and listen to that episode somewhere in the skies to get kind of the gist of what about. Again, just a very, very cool project that I am so thrilled that I was able to be a part of. And in the mean meantime, I'll get on to the case at hand. Now, this case occurred in New Zealand on Sunday, April 2, 1978. A young woman by the name of Lee Robinson was riding her motorcycle along Sunset Road to Henderson, a suburb of Auckland, around 8.30 in the evening,

when she saw flashing lights in the distance overhead, so she stopped and watched as these lights came closer. She said that at first she thought that a star had exploded, not exactly sure what that means, maybe a falling star. But as the lights approached, she said that she realized that they actually were revolving kind of like a lighthouse. Now, the thing came even closer, and she saw that it was shaped as she described it like a door wedge,

with two red lights and one green light. She said that one side of the object appeared to be transparent. As the object came to a stop within about 200 meters of her, as she estimated, Lee said that she noticed two figures inside of the object watching her. She claimed that she could only see the beings from the waist up, and that she felt as though they had come to see what she was doing. She also claimed that they appeared to be wearing what she described as dark robes. Lee claimed that she stood there, frozen in fear for a couple of minutes,

until finally a car drove down the road, effectively breaking her trance and apparently spooking the object. it moved off into the night. So Lee was kind of so perturbed by this event that she called in nearby airbase to see if they had received any other reports. They hadn't. But after her account was published in the Auckland Star, multiple people called to say that they too had seen a strange, either wedge-shaped object or lighted object in the skies around Auckland over the weekend.

A man named Wade Corlick called to say that he and a friend, Bruce Kidd, had been on the road Friday night when they saw a brilliant orange light overhead. Suddenly a police car sped past and stopped at an upcoming intersection. The two officers inside had already seen the object and stopped for a closer look. The party of four continued to watch as the object, which they described as leaded as kind of this wedge-shaped thing, kind of appeared to get smaller, than bigger, then simply faded away. One Mr. and Mrs. Griffin also called the paper to report a sighting of a bright green and white light, which occurred about the same time as Lee Robinson's account.

Now, this is a relatively short case, but I really could not resist making a quick episode on it because of one very weird detail, the robed beings. This is an excellent example of kind of one of those cross-field aspects. By all accounts, you have this very, you know, classic, very euphologically inclined sighting of just this lighted geometric object in the sky, and then the occupants inside are dressed in these dark robes. something much more akin to the ghostly side of anomalies research.

So-called phantom monks are a common motif throughout haunted locations, and, oddly enough, they make an appearance more often than you might expect in cases of so-called UFO-occupant contact. Now, this case also has another one of my favorite details, that of the anomaly appearing to watch the observer. Now, I've mentioned this time and time again, but I feel as though the emphasis on many of these apparent entities, whether the eyes are a prominent feature of the entity or just the action of kind of watching,

it seems to be a very important trope or pattern, almost as though maybe a reaffirmation or maybe we might even say contract between the observer and the observed. Now another great aspect, which is this kind of reoccurring theme, and again kind of cross every field of anomalies research, is the importance of lights and light phenomena. Now, in this case, as well as other sightings in the area at the time, the lights were the first thing which attracted the attention of the observers. From there, especially in the case of Lee Robinson, more details kind of emerged. Now, I've said it a billion times, if I've said it once, John Kiel was of the opinion that the lights, or what we would consider the softer sightings,

are actually the core or the important thing of the encounter, and the hard and fast appearances of craft or entity or creature are kind of more of an illusion. And I think that there's potential for a lot of truth, kind of in that concept. Now, interestingly enough, if we kind of look at these encounters as more individualized experiences swayed by the observer, somewhat illusory in nature. Here we also have the flip side. Although Lee was the only one to report seeing these beings inside of the object, the object itself appearing as this door wedge-shaped thing was also spotted and confirmed as appearing

that way by Mr. Corlinton Company and a few days previous, which kind of shows this perceived solidarity of these sightings, you know, these potentially illusory sightings that they kind of maintain the same shape in the same area for a period of time, unless, of course, were to believe that dark-robed monks from outer space flew their giant door wedge to the Auckland area for a weekend jaunt. You know, on the flip side, yet again, at roughly the same time that Lee was having her sighting complete with little robed men, the Griffin couple simply spotted a green white light glittering across the sky, you know, is that because of the distance or is it because they weren't close enough to kind of kickstart the details of that

encounter? So again, we're faced with the question, objective or subjective, and personally, I think the answer is yes. Again, paradoxical and wonderful and really quite odd. So before I head out, let me remind you guys once again, go and check out somewhere in the skies, especially that newest episode on documentary Grand Tower, UFOs, and other high strangeness. And if you enjoyed this episode on the Auckland anomaly, please like. And if you're new to this field of crop circles, go ahead and subscribe to see what weirdness the future may have in store. Till then, you can keep up with me on my free blog at patreon.com slash just another tinfoil hat. And for today, I am Zelia Edgar, signing off. This has been Just Another Tinfoil hat with Zelia Edgar.

Be sure to rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. For full video versions of these episodes, be sure to subscribe to just another tinfoil hat on YouTube. Thank you for listening. You can't reason with the sun. Trust us. We've tried. This summer, it's time to put that angry ball of fire on mute. Columbia's Omnishade technology is engineered to protect you from the sun's harsh rays that can burn and damage your skin.

The sun is relentless, but so is our gear. Level up your summer at Columbia.com to spend more time outside and less time slathering on allolotion. You're welcome. Columbia. Engineered for whatever. Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money. Whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion dollar swings.

There's a money side to every story. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com. Ryan Reynolds here for MintMobil, the message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just. $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment.

Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three-month plan, equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com.