New Zealand is a country with a population close to just 4.5 million people, with 31% of this population living in the Auckland region. The rest of the country is made up of two other major centres of Christchurch in the South Island, and the capital Wellington, at the bottom of the North Island. The majority of the land in-between is rural and nature reserves, which benefits from having very little light pollution making New Zealand one of the best places in the world to view the night sky.
In fact, New Zealand is one of only three countries in the world to have a Gold Rated International Dark Sky Reserve – the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve on the South Island. This dark sky reserve is also the biggest in the world, and includes the Aoraki Mt Cook National Park and the villages of Lake Tekapo, Twizel and Mt Cook.
Even in the capital city of Wellington, you can drive just 20 minutes out of the city centre to the south coast, and view the Milky Way in all it’s glory with the naked eye.
For me personally, living and working in New Zealand for well over a decade now has been an amazing experience. In that time I’ve spent many hours under the night sky with my camera, capturing the incredible universe above, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to show you 63 images which proves New Zealand has some of the best night skies in the World!
Just Follow this link to see them all.
Just some of the night skies photographed in New Zealand, click on the image to see all 63!