Starry nights and clear views

Spectacular sunny skies as we depart out of Dunedin and stop in for breakfast at the picture perfect cafe at Moeraki Boulders. It's surprisingly warm here. We're still almost as far south in latitude but its like a summers day. Everything about this spot is perfect and makes for a great place to have a relaxed cooked breakfast on the wooden deck overlooking the ocean, before a short walk down to the beach to have a look at the giant naturally formed marbles.

Gradually, Andy takes our bus back inland on a highway with the snow peaked mountains almost all the way onto Lake Tekapo with a quick stop at Lake Pukaki and the salmon farm to feed the fish and pick up some dinner for tonight. We arrive for a quick sight seeing tour of this quaint little church on the edge of Lake Tekapo (Tek-ah-po) which despite the town size of about 100 requires two years advance booking to get a wedding there.

We're prepared for a great stay here. Andy says the Lakefront Lodge is the best backpacker in NZ, and with this size town and this scenery, this is looking like a place to stay put for a while... so much for the express to the top of the island.


The Lakefront Lodge looking from the outside.. and from the inside.


This place has a great atmosphere and is perfectly designed to please backpackers and architects alike. Paul manages the backpacker here and joins Andy and I while we tuck into our salmon steaks. Paul couldn't be tempted as he's a vego, but I reckon he was almost thinking he was going to be tempted, and had to resort to telling us that he had a moral code on it. We're actually lucky Andy was there, as there was plenty of vegies around to make up a nice salad to go with it and fortunately the bottle of chardy I picked up in Oamaru came in handy here too.

With perfect timing, its time to head on over to the star attraction here... the St John Observatory just up the hill behind us. This is the largest observatory in the southern hemisphere, and it's put here because of the crystal clear skies. We get picked up by the small coaster bus, with a short stop off in the village to hand over the $75. While waiting, I'm joking with Jendra that I'm thinking of a way to get into this one for free. I'm not even real sure I know why I'm thinking that, but I run a few ideas past her loud enough that the girl behind the counter can hear, and it seems she picked up on it. As I stepped forward.. I said, "and a free one for me I believe", she says "yes, of course", and hands me my tickets. Jendra looks on with amazement...

Up the mountain we go with our headlights off. This town (err village) is real particular about lighting around here, so that they can observe without light pollution. I'm even told there is a council rule that says that all household lights must not point up in any way. One thing was for sure.. the view from up there certainly was clear.

It's rediculously cold up here and we've got ideal conditions for star gazing.. no clouds of any sort. Our guides are more briliant than the 3/4 moon with their begining to end comedic commentary... every joke that astonomers must have come up with they had them all.. non stop... and with an enthusiam that really made up for a lack of what you really can see through the scope. These telescopes are powerful, but when it comes down to it, what you actually see really is unimpressive. Ok, the 120,000 light years away galaxies are impressive, but they still just look like a bunch of blurry dots on the end of the telescope. In any case, it was a good night out, and the view from the top of the mountain of the region all the way around was impressive on its own.