Did Tom Cruise secretly swoop into Queenstown?

Hollywood megastar Tom Cruise may have secretly swooped in and out of New Zealand.

An eagle-eyed southerner spotted who he believed was the Hollywood A-lister on the tarmac at Queenstown Airport this afternoon about to board his private jet.

The Gulfstream IV private jet flew past the City of Sails and was last seen soaring over the Pacific Ocean.

With a range of around 7000km, the jet could easily take off from Queenstown and land in the Pacific Islands - which are around 3000km away from Queenstown.
The Gulfstream IV seats up to 20 passengers and is worth $54 million.

In July of 2017, Cruise was spotted entering Auckland's Church of Scientology building in Grafton.

The actor had reportedly wanted to take a look around the premises, spokesperson Michael Ferris said at the time.

"We were very pleased to have him and he loved what he saw. I shook his hand and said it was good to meet him - it was fantastic, he's an important guy.

"He's really down to earth, so it was just nice to have him here and that he would want to come see this."

Cruise was filmed in 2017 leaving the church building to the sound of cheering and applause.

He later thanked New Zealand on Twitter before leaving the country.

In August of last year, it was reported Cruise was planning a temporary move to the Land of the Long White Cloud and had begun "scouting" properties.

It was expected the two next Mission Impossible films would be filmed on New Zealand shores, RadarOnline reported.

"The New Zealand Film Commission is secretly 'romancing' producers to come back after they shot one scene of Fallout there," a source said.

"Tom's 100 per cent on board ... He already has people scouting for incredible home rentals in the South Island wilderness."

Mission: Impossible 6 was partly filmed in New Zealand back in 2017, with Cruise arriving in Queenstown at the time to shoot it.

The film was shot at Duffers Saddle, near Cromwell in Central Otago.

It has also been reported Mission: Impossible 7 was due to be released in July 2021, and Mission: Impossible 8 would follow in August 2022.

Seventeen years ago, blockbuster film The Last Samurai, featuring Cruise as its main character, was also filmed in New Zealand in Taranaki.

It created 1400 fulltime jobs, upped some Taranaki firms' turnover by 800 per cent and injected $85.5 million into the national economy.

Flow-on activity lifted the national figure to an estimated $196 million.