New Zealand skydive leads to breathtaking photos showing an extremely rare circular rainbow

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Beginner captures stunning natural sight over New Zealand in first freefall
Incredible images of rare sight show a stunning ring of colour in the sky
Display caused by sunlight hitting water particles from above and below

Published: 12:21 EST, 11 October 2016 | Updated: 12:25 EST, 11 October 2016

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These amazing images capture the moment a skydiver flew over an incredibly rare circular rainbow.

This breathtaking sight was photographed by Anthony Killeen as he was freefalling above the Bay of Islands in New Zealand.

The 29-year-old from the UK saw the stunning optical phenomenon on his very first skydive.

Adventuring Anthony Killeen captured the incredibly rare sight of a stunning circular rainbow as he was skydiving. Ordinarily only half of a rainbow is visible from ground level. He described the lucky sighting as 'amazing'

The ring of colours framed the picturesque landscape below in an amazing spectacle.

Rainbows are all circular in theory, but are usually only half-visible from visible from ground level.

Catching a rare glimpse of a fully circular rainbow requires the viewer to have a more extreme vantage point, and good timing.

Mr Killeen said: “I honestly can’t think of a better word to describe it other than amazing.”

The optical phenomenon of the circular rainbow frames the landscape below. To see the full circle requires the observer to take an extreme vantage point, so the sunlight illuminating water particles will be both below and above them, lighting up a circle rather than the normal arc seen from ground level

The 29-year-old Anthony Killeen, from the UK, had travelled to New Zealand in 2011 to backback across the country. He witnessed the amazing natural spectacle on his very first skydive

Many skydivers never see the sight of a full rainbow, or see them only while passing in a plane. Few are lucky enough to freefall towards to the colourful display. Anthony Killeen can be seen exiting the plane, unaware of what he was about to see

“We came out of the cloud and I caught the first glimpse of the rainbow and within a few seconds my skydiving instructor pulled the parachute.

“It jerks you around for a few seconds and I was frantically trying to spot the rainbow again. We steadied ourselves and caught it all on camera.”

"This was the pinnacle and I’ll never have an experience like that again."