We love a good love story, and this is certainly one of those.
Sue was a Playcentre Mum at the same time that Emma was up in Auckland, so there’s already a connection making this evening under the Southern Night Sky even more special to us.
Sue wanted to propose to her partner Tania and obviously wanted it to be a very special & memorable experience for the both of them. Their trip to Queenstown seemed to be the perfect opportunity, especially since Sue had been following the adventures we’ve been having on our Starry Nights Adventures.
It’s always such a privilege to be involved in a moment so special in a couple’s lives together. It’s something we take very seriously and value the trust that is being placed in us.
Tania was under the impression that they were going on a star tour, with an old friend of Sue’s. And for the first part of the evening, that’s exactly what they experienced.
We don’t have a set script to run our tours by, sure we have elements that we think are interesting and what our guests will want to know about, such as how to find South and the other cardinal points using the stars. Other than that, we love to go with the flow, it keeps it fresh for us allowing our infectious passion for the night sky pass to our manuhiri (visitors).
We always come armed with our licensed laser pointer, binoculars, 8” Dobsonian telescope, an iPad and camera. The combination of how we use them is directed by you and the whetū (stars) we can observe above us in the heavens.
We’d been keeping a very keen eye upon the weather, as we always do, and even though there was some cloud in the sky, we knew the moon was in a great phase for star gazing and were confident that we’d be able to easily work with the windows that we were given.
The planets have recently returned to the evening sky, which is a real treat. Their motion around the sun means that the time they appear isn’t fixed, so up until a few weeks ago you had to get up in the very early hours of the morning to view them.
Pareārau (Saturn) is one of the most incredible celestial objects to view on our tours. With your naked eye, she appears to look like a bright star. Using the binoculars, you see a slight oval, but if you’re unaware she still looks like a bright star. When you take a peek through the telescope, it’s a whole different story.
This evening was no exception, the excitement from both Sue & Tania at realising this was indeed a planet rather than a star was awesome. How diid they realise? By seeing the rings, everyone knows Pareārua has rings and it’s really quite something when you get to see them with your own eyes.
When you’re star gazing, you’re outside, and there’s no escaping the fact that it’s a little colder than most of us are used to. We always remind our manuhiri to dress as warm as possible and make sure that we bring along a hot drink to help warm them up to.
We’re fans of keeping things local, and love to support small craft business, so we have found recently beautiful ‘Galaxy’ cups from Sam Mayell Handmade Ceramics to serve home brewed Masala Chai using an idea we were given by Kritika & Sam to share with Sue & Tania. Both couples. sharing their joy of India. We hope they will be treasured by Sue & Tania for many years and another reminder of their special evening under the stars. From a warm spot in Auckland one Sunday morning we hope they sip on their chai and remember the feeling of the evening.
With the star gazing part of the tour wrapped up, it was time to venture slightly up the hill to a more photogenic spot and to allow Sue to ask the big question.
Emma worked with Sue as they were planning the trip to set up a way of giving her a cue, which was to guide them to a patch of snow and say…I’ll leave you to take it all in…
We retreated Sue wanted Tania to feel just alone with her in that moment. As we got busy down the hill positioning the camera to take a photograph of them at that spot, with the centre of the Milky Way - our home galaxy, sitting in the sky above them, it soon became obvious that Tania did indeed say yes. Some laughter was carried in the Winter breeze our. way and Emma heard a ‘mwah’.
We’d been treated to some amazingly clear skies for star gazing, but looking around we could see that was about to change. Thankfully due to our experience of photographing the night sky, we managed to quickly turn that to our advantage and create the most beautiful panorama of them both standing high above the Wakatipu Basin.
We wish you both the sun, moon and stars xx
“You become. It takes a long time. Thats why it doesn’t happen often to people who break or have sharp edges. Once. you are real , you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always”
“Thank you both for what was already an evening full of wonder, star gazing & stories the knowledge and enthusiasm that Simon has is absolutely phenomenal your passion and love for sharing your knowledge is palpable and I was so totally engaged! But then came the moment where Sue cast her own magic and yes I said YES! Under a stunning starry night sky which Simon captured for us as a visual treasure that we shall both cherish. So many heartfelt thank you’s , you are both amazing 💫 💍”
“Thank you so much! You guys are masters of creating MAGICAL evenings.......so special - thank you xxx love you both!”