A Greerton resident's former disbelief in claims of UFO sightings has been changed forever by what he saw above Argyll Road last night.

He was awoken about 12.30am by a thud he imagined was made by a cat.

Jayson saw a greenish light hovering near the Kaimai Range. This photo of comet Lovejoy taken in November 2015, by Gerald Rhemann in Austria using a remotely operated 12-inch f/3.6 astrograph in Namibia, illustrates what colour the UFO may have been.

'I was looking out onto our lawn when I noticed a flickering greenish coloured light moving quickly across the horizon, before coming to a sudden stop in a south westerly direction, which appeared to be somewhere toward the Kaimai Range, hovering slightly,” says Jayson Hurley.

'Finding this unusual, I ran a grabbed my wife who also witnessed this object hovering.”

The couple observed the object for what seemed like about 15 minutes, says Jayson.

He says it remained hovering in one position moving from right to left, then left to right.

Finally it stopped, the light brightened, then extremely quickly it took off straight up out of sight with no noise.

'It went from the horizon, straight up out of sight within a quarter of a second,” says Jayson. 'I'm not quite sure what kind of man made object can go that fast vertically. None I guess."

He couldn't get a picture as his phone wouldn't pick it up on the camera being probably too dark for the camera to see it.

"It was nothing like I've ever seen before. The UFO itself made no sound whatsoever. I am sure other people awake at this hour may have seen it as it was quite distinct and unusual.

'I didn't believe in these things, but after seeing what I've just seen, I certainly have a different opinion now.”

An unidentified flying object, or UFO, in its most general definition, is any apparent anomaly in the sky that is not identifiable as a known object or phenomenon.