Mount John, Lake Tekapo and the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky reserve

Mount John and Lake Tekapo are home to the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve – the acclaimed largest dark sky reserve on this planet. Staying in the area I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to join up with Earth & Sky on a Mount John Observatory Tour. Living the life of an astronomer of course means working the night shift and as it was New Zealand summer time this meant it was pretty late by the time I clambered up on board the Earth & Sky coach. As we approached the top of Mount John and our driver kindly informed us that he was now switching off his headlights so as not to disturb the astronomers working above I began to wonder how foolhardy I was being! It hadn’t helped that the journey prior to the lights out part had been quite hair-raising with the access road up both steep and narrow with no obvious safety barrier at either side. There wasn’t much to separate any wrong turn with a steep sheer drop down below. Luckily our driver was a professional and after a brief respite had his night vision sorted whilst I in turn gripped tightly onto the hand rail on the seat in front. I don’t think I was alone. We were safely delivered to the top a short while later thankfully and once we had recovered our senses somewhat were split into small groups.  Each group was allocated a guide to lead us on a discovery of the southern skies. Fortunately it was a clear night with great visibility and not too much cloud cover. My eyes gradually adjusted and as I peered upwards I could easily make out the Milky Way and Southern Cross. Our guide pointed out numerous star constellations including the plough which was actually the opposite way around to what a lot of us had previously experienced in the Northern Hemisphere. It soon became obvious as to why the reserve had been chosen as here high above the Mackenzie basin I felt on top of the world – so much above everything else that it felt as though I could reach up and touch the stars. The only unnatural light in the area was way down below at Lake Tekapo, however even there special lighting had been introduced to help minimize any light pollution. The real highlight of the tour was being taken into the white domed telescopic buildings where I was shown a genuinely large and powerful telescope, the type you only really see on television. Our guide lined the telescope up - all done electronically - and allowed me to take a long look through. Suddenly distant glittering clusters of stars and galaxies dazzled in front of my eyes.