New Zealand was one of those countries that I couldn’t help but compare with Iceland – the snow-capped mountains, open roads, waterfalls, the cold climate, etc. We had actually planned to go in December 2018, but we wanted a different travel experience (after our road trip in Iceland in June 2018), and went to Turkey instead (look out for blog entries on that soon!). After Japan in March 2019, I still felt like NZ was beckoning me, and I gave in to her call.

Day 1

Fast forward to 8 June 2019. We had taken an overnight flight the evening before, and arrived in Christchurch at about 11.30am. Picked up the car, and drove for 3 hours to Lake Tekapo. It was already starting to get dark when we pulled into the car park by the Church of the Good Shepherd. We were only here for one night, and we eagerly anticipated for it to arrive, because we were in the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve – light pollution is strictly controlled in the area, which means ideal conditions for stargazing.

After getting some shots of the lake and the church at sunset, we checked into our airbnb, did some grocery shopping for dinner, and headed to the church again. We were wrapped up in layers of warm clothing as the mercury dipped to about 0°C.

The church was fenced up, and after 5pm, entry was allowed only for tour groups. So we hunkered down around the car park and set up our cameras and tripods. Besides looking at the night sky on our cameras’ screens, we took in the view with our own eyes. I had never seen so many stars in my life, and it was my first time witnessing the Milky Way. We had dabbled in some astrophotography before, on Mt. Penanjakan in Indonesia (blog entry on that soon too!), but I must have been looking at the wrong section of the sky, as I don’t remember seeing the yellowish cloud of the Milky Way then.

That night was definitely one for the books.

Where we stayed

Our first airbnb for the roadtrip really set the bar high for the rest of the trip. It’s an entire guest suite, so it came with a living room, bedroom, toilet (with a rainshower, always a plus!), and kitchen! We enjoyed our stay here, and enjoyed a sunrise right from the living room and deck the next day.