Aotearoa is blessed with brilliant night skies, made all the brighter by low levels of light pollution and incredible constellations. Get ready to be amazed with some winter stargazing when cold air means clearer skies and shorter days equal inky skies for longer.

This fun guide shines a light on some of the country’s top stargazing spots, and how best to observe and capture the night sky.

Amazing astronomical facts to light up your life

• The bright band of stars above us is the Milky Way, the galaxy that includes our own solar system. Shaped like a flattened spiral, it appears as a band of milky light as we are viewing it from inside the disk approximately two thirds of the way from the centre. Every star you can discern individually with the naked eye is contained within the Milky Way!
• Why are our southern night skies more impressive than those in the northern hemisphere? Well, the north pole faces outwards to the universe beyond, while the south pole points to the galactic centre of the Milky Way, which means we’re able to see more bright stars, constellations and far-off galaxies.
• The night sky might look like a big black canvas painted with twinkling stars, but these stars are distributed far and wide to a mind-boggling degree. Let’s put this in perspective by looking at the Southern Cross’s pointer stars. Alpha Centauri – the third brightest star and one of the closest to earth – is 4.32 light years away (over 40 trillion kilometres), while the other pointer star, Hadar (aka Beta Centauri) appears right next to Alpha Centauri but is in fact almost 100 times further away – a whopping 392 light years!
• The Southern Cross has been used as a navigational aid for centuries, We’ve all heard of it, but do you know how to find it and use it? Check out this easy guide on Te Ara.

• The southern skies contain the three brightest stars – Sirius, Canopus, and Alpha Centauri – plus the finest examples of almost every type of astronomical object, including the Large & Small Magellanic Clouds – two extraordinary galaxies visible to the naked eye.
• New Zealand’s southern latitude and dark night skies make it a great place places to see the Aurora Australis. This magical light display is the result of charged particles from the sun colliding with the Earth’s magnetic field and getting funnelled towards the southern magnetic pole. We see different colours when the particles strike gaseous molecules in the Earth’s upper atmosphere – green and red from oxygen and violet from nitrogen.
• Autumn and winter are the best for aurora spotting, although they can be seen at any time of year especially when solar activity is high – there’s are apps for this!
• According to Māori pūrākau (legend), the night skies were created by Tāne – son of sky father and earth mother, Ranginui and Papatūānuku:
  Wishing for there to be light, Tane filled his kete (basket) with celestial children and arranged them across the cosmos. Tāne started with little stars, then larger ones, but still it was dark. Even when he placed the moon, darkness remained. Only when he cast the sun in the sky was the Earth transformed into the world of light – Te Ao Mārama.
• It’s not just stars you can see in the night sky, planets are visible too. If it’s twinkling, it’s a star and if it isn’t, it’s almost certainly a planet (or UFO!). Read here to find out why.

Top spots for stargazing

New Zealand has six communities with official dark sky accreditation. From north to south – Aotea Great Barrier Island Dark Sky Sanctuary, Wairarapa Dark Sky Reserve, Tasman’s Wai-iti Dark Sky Park, Oxford Dark Sky Park, Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve and Stewart Island/Rakiura Dark Sky Sanctuary.

However, with our wide open spaces and low levels of light pollution you can see admire brilliant night skies almost all over the motu. Just head away from large towns and cities, look up and be blown away. This light pollution map can also help you find the best (and worst) places to see the stars. Here’s a selection of top spots for astronomical exploration to get you started.

North Island / Te Ika ā Māui

Fun in the Far North

Northland’s low-density population means less light at night and an abundance of great places to enjoy the night sky. Coastal locations, with their naturally low levels of light pollution, are ideal as illustrated by this fabulous photo taken at the Matauri Bay Holiday Park north of the Bay of Islands. You can find all of Northland’s holiday parks here. A good alternative for cloudy nights is the Whangarei Planetarium.

The Coromandel – good for the soul

The Coromandel peninsula is another beautiful region with inky night skies. Why not explore them with Galaxy Gazer Astronomy Tours at Kūaotunu, north of Whitianga? The stargazing is so good the local community are trying to get the area gazetted as an official Dark Sky community.

The peninsula is home to nearly 20 excellent holiday parks, from peaceful pocket-sized camps to upscale resorts with all the bells and whistles.

Ruapehu, centre of the universe

With two national parks, Tongariro to the east and Whanganui to the west, Ruapehu is reassuringly remote with almost no light pollution and super-bright night skies. In fact, Raetihi, the cute wee town with some of NZ’s widest streets and a dead-cool dinosaur museum, is hoping to become dark-sky accredited.

Great places to stay, and spy the stars, include the town’s holiday park, the Ohakune TOP 10 or Tongariro Holiday Park.

Back to the future at Stonehenge Aotearoa

What better place to take in the astronomical wonders of the Wairarapa Dark Sky Reserve, than Stonehenge Aotearoa – a unique open-air observatory constructed using ancient stone-circle knowledge, adapted and aligned for its southern hemisphere location. Book a private after-dark Start Trek tour hosted by acclaimed astronomer Richard Hall.

Six wonderful holiday parks can be found nearby in Martinborough, Greytown, Carterton, Masterton, Cape Palliser and Castlepoint.

South Island / Te Waipounamu

Big skies in little Wai-Iti

Around 30km southwest of Nelson, close to Wakefield, is one of New Zealand’s lesser-known dark sky parks – Wai-iti. Centred around 135ha of recreation reserve, it’s also the venue for star parties organised by the local ‘Top of the South Dark Sky Committee’. Keep an eye on this Dark Skies NZ Facebook page for the next stellar event.

The Nelson Tasman region is blessed with over a dozen doozy holiday parks.

Dunedin – an aurora hot spot

Lie back and enjoy a Stargazing Tour on Ōtepoti Dunedin’s Otago Peninsula, and discover how Māori used their tātai arorangi (astronomical knowledge) to navigate the oceans, plant crops and harvest kaimoana. If the stars align, prepare to be bamboozled by the colourful display of the Aurora Australis, and see why this is a prized location for viewing the Southern Lights.

Park up at Portobello Village Tourist Park on the peninsula, or one of two holiday parks closer to the city centre if you’re keen to enjoy Dunedin’s other nightlife.

New Zealand’s largest dark sky reserve

Famous, not just in New Zealand, the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve is the southern hemisphere’s largest at a whopping 4367km2. Fabulous night skies can be enjoyed all over the region, but to take your experience to the next level, it’s hard to beat the tours atop Mt John where the views will knock your socks off night and day.

Pick from four handsome holiday parks spread across the Mackenzie region – Lake Ruataniwha Holiday Park, Twizel Holiday Park, Glentanner Park and Lakes Edge Holiday Park – where there are beautiful places to park up and a variety of accommodation from cute, warm cabins to swanky apartments.

Naseby – New Zealand’s newest night-sky project?

Naseby, probably best known for curling or it’s cheeky ‘2000 feet above worry level’ sign, looks set to become the latest New Zealand town to be awarded dark-sky status. An outing with Naseby Night Sky Tours will reveal it’s astronomical wonders, starting first with lessons about the moon, then our solar system and beyond to the major constellations of the southern skies.

Stay at friendly Naseby Holiday Park tucked into the forest and close to the town’s maze of mountain bike tracks.

Astrophotography tips and tricks

Keen to capture some incredible night sky images? Check out these top tips for stargazing and astrophotography.

1. Choose your spot. If you can’t get to one of the country’s dark-sky reserves or parks, fret not. Even a quick walk to the nearest park, reserve or the outskirts of your holiday park will make a big difference to what you can see. Pick a safe site, a cloudless night, and preferably one with a new moon.
2. Let your eyes adjust to the dark, and use a torch with a red light function, or cover it with red cellophane.
3. Stargazing apps, such as Skyview, Night Sky or Star Walk, are fab for orientating yourself and identifying constellations and planets. Activate your phone’s red-light function, or reduce your screen brightness, so you don’t ruin your night vision!
4. You don’t need an expensive camera to photograph the night sky. Read this handy smartphone astrophotography guide for some top tips, or if you want to get more serious with a DSLR check out this article that includes camera settings for snapping twilight landscapes, constellations, aurorae and star trails.
5. Use your camera’s delay timer or remote (if it has one) to avoid the wobbles.
6. Wrap up warm and shoot for the stars!

To spy galaxies of glowworms, head underground in this fascinating article.

Fancy dipping into a heavenly hot pool to soak up the stars? Read this article to find out how.