Southern Stars

Having lived in Colorado, I thought I knew what dark skies looked like. In truth, I had no idea. Until I moved to New Zealand. How dark is it here? Well, in most places, on a partly cloudy night, the clouds show up as slightly grey, a bit lighter than the clear sky. Here in NZ, the clouds are completely black (because there is little/no light reflecting off them) and the night sky is actually a bit light (from starlight). The Milky Way is bright enough to cast shadows on the ground.

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Canterbury Tales

Canterbury, New Zealand. It’s often the place visitors pass through to get to somewhere more exciting. But for the last 12 months, it has been our home. And we’ve gotten to explore some of this often overlooked part of New Zealand. There are some gems in the area, some well-known, some not so well-known. Here’s what we saw.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Radiance

If my recent experience at Moeraki Boulders wasn’t enough, I got another lesson in taking a chance again at New Brighton Pier in Christchurch. My friends Nick, Jorg, and I had agreed on a 5am start from town. When we started off, it was drizzling quite steadily with a completely overcast sky (or as much as we could see under still-dark skies). We kept our expectations low, but still hoped for something, as we drove the hour and 15 minutes through sometimes torrential rain to New Brighton.

Erewhon — Journey to Nowhere

There is a place that, like many places, is overlooked in favour of more famous places. Places like Mt. Cook, Arthur’s Pass, and Milford Sound are justifiably famous and visited by many people on the South Island of New Zealand. But right here in our backyard in Mid Canterbury there is a place tucked away from most people that rivals the beauty of the others. That place, is Erewhon, the end of Nowhere.

Light On The Braids

New Zealand is home to many braided rivers. A braided river is one that has many channels criss-crossing over each other, looking like a braid. One such braided river is the Waimakariri, one of the largest rivers in Canterbury. On its journey from the Southern Alps to the Pacific Ocean, it creates a wide valley below Arthur’s Pass. This valley is just about a 2-hour drive from our house, leaving it within my reach between school drop-off and pick-up.

A Kiwi Rainforest?

Sharplin Falls is an easy walk on Mt. Somers, about a 40-minute drive away. We decided to check it out soon after we arrived here. Little did we know that we would be transported to a rainforest.