Mount Cook (older)
(newer) Mount John 


Moongazing


This post was published on Monday 21 January 2019.

The reason we chose to come to Lake Tekapo is because it is part of a UNESCO Dark Sky Reserve – an ideal place for looking at the stars.

One of the most amazing experiences of my life was looking up at the night sky while staying in Lesotho – we were something like 100 miles from the nearest electricity, so there was no light pollution at all. The stars were beyond incredible – and I saw the Milky Way for the first (and only) time in my life.

My hope was that, even if we weren’t able to see the Milky Way, we would at least see a carpet of countless millions of stars at Lake Tekapo. What I’d failed to consider, is that in a dark sky reserve, when there is a full moon, it is really bright. And, we arrived on the day, not only of a full moon, but the super blood moon that some of you may have seen in the UK...

Here’s the moon rising and shining over Lake Tekapo that night, and it was beautiful.

The moon was so bright, we couldn’t really see any stars – especially when coupled with the almost total cloud cover both nights! – but it was casting the sharpest shadows, it was almost like the sun! It doesn’t quite come out in the photos though...

It was probably the biggest disappointment of the trip, not seeing the stars that night. But it turned out that wasn’t the reason we had visited Lake Tekapo.

 Mount Cook (older)
(newer) Mount John