Making it happen

We really are over the moon to have our borders open again to the rest of the world, it’s been very strange around here without our international visitors.

Keng got in touch with us not long after the opening was announced. Himself and his friend Victor were coming to Aotearoa (New Zealand) and in particular Tāhuna (Queenstown) and were wanting to book onto our Starry Night Tour placing a focus upon Astrophotography.

We had a discussion about the moon phase, an 87% waxing gibbous moon is indeed a very bright and full moon. This has an effect on what we can see in the night sky. The constellations are way more prominent, but the detail in the deep space is lacking. However, the polarised light from the moon has the most mesmerising effect upon the landscape.

We’ve had a very warm Autumn this year, and the onset of winter appears to have been delayed somewhat. The weather is important to us in our day to lives and even more so when it comes to photography and our tours. We really do want the guests we host to have an amazing time, so we tend to keep an eye on the forecasts.

In the days leading up to Keng and Victors tour, we really were kept on our toes. There was a storm approaching and fingers crossed it was bringing with it a fair amount of snow. It really wasn’t looking good, in terms of clear skies that is. The snow certainly fell, so much so that it closed a fair few roads, especially the ones going higher.

We knew though that even if there was a small window of opportunity to see the stars, we needed to take it. The Crown Range Road was closed, Coronet Peak road was closed and there was cloud over the lake for most of the evening, so when window did appear, many of ouur favourite spots were unobtainable.

Thankfully after applying lots of local knowledge we found some truly beautiful views, shared some stories and made memories.