Cowans Hill

We arrived at Lake Tekapo pretty early in the day, seeking a nice breakfast after hiking out from the hut, and hoping for an early check-in somewhere to get our first shower in a few days. Since the hostel we had chosen didn't stay check-in until 2pm, we had some time to kill and enjoy the lake. Keanan was feeling a little sun fatigued and opted for reading on the beach under a tree while I rented a paddle board. The water was the incredible shade of blue that has become so commonplace on this trip, yet never ceases to amaze me. Once I returned back to the beach, I decided swimming could substitute for a shower for at least a little longer and enjoyed the cool glacial water.

Once we checked into the hostel, we began the process of removing all of our stuff from the van and trying to fit it back into our bags for travel. We had a delicious dinner, including trying 2 very unique NZ gins that we both loved. After dinner, we walked down to the Church of the Good Shepherd, an iconic location in town, before heading back to finish packing and trying to stay awake for our stargazing tour that didn't leave until midnight!

We had perfect weather for the stargazing tour. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky and the moonrise doesn't happen until the morning so it was very dark. The guide took us through a baked eye tour of the sky, pointing out special stars, galaxies and constellations as well as how to navigate in the southern hemisphere without a North Star equivalent. We then used the telescope to look at several nebulas, stars and star clusters. In the middle of looking through the telescope, our guide got very excited and directed our attention to the horizon, where the aurora was making an appearance! This is very rare in the summer and was definitely not something I was even hoping we'd get a chance to see on this trip, so that was incredible!

After some questions about the color of the aurora, I did some research, and this is what National Geographic has to say:

"An aurora's brilliant colors are determined by the compositions and densities of atmospheric gases—mostly oxygen and nitrogen—found at different altitudes. Reds are the highest of the auroral colors, appearing above 150 miles (240 kilometers). It takes almost two minutes for an excited oxygen atom to emit a red photon, and if the atom collides with another air particle before releasing its light, the color may never emerge. That's why red appears only in the thinner air found at very high altitudes. Bright greens are most common 150 to 60 miles (240 to 100 kilometers) above Earth. Green photons are discharged in less than a second, so they're able to occur in the moderately dense atmosphere at middle elevations. In the very thick lower atmosphere, less than 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the planet's surface, we see a purplish mixture of red and blue lights—the signature colors of molecular nitrogen."Les mer