Dazzling starry night skies

Tekapo’s Church of the Good Shepherd is one of New Zealand’s most popular tourist attractions.

But while visitors flock to photograph the iconic church by day, at night they are coming to point their cameras directly to the heavens.

Pull up into the church car park after the sun goes down and you will find a swarm of international visitors, many capturing, on even the smallest digital camera, incredible images of a galaxy they have never seen with the naked eye.

Frank Film’s latest episode in its Changing South series delves into the advent of astro-tourism in the South Canterbury town.

Stargazing opportunities are bringing hundreds of tourists to Tekapo each night.

One couple from Shanghai says while they do see a ‘‘few stars’’ at home, it is ‘‘nothing like this’’.

Alan Gilmore, former superintendent of Canterbury University’s Mt John Observatory, said Tekapo was in a mountain basin which kept out the low coastal cloud and that ‘‘gives us a lot of clear nights compared with other places in New Zealand’’.

To protect visibility and prevent light pollution, the Mackenzie District Council imposed lighting restrictions on the town as far back as the 1980s, a move Graeme Murray called ‘‘forward thinking’’. Years after that council decision, Murray paired up with Hide Ozawa to offer the first astro-tourism venture at the top of Mt John, where Canterbury University’s telescopes have long been based.

Telescopes aren’t needed to take in the wonder of the night sky though, with the Milky Way galaxy and many planets visible to the naked eye.

‘‘One beautiful, clear night on the top of Mt John under a pristine, dark sky, Hide had a wee chat to me, that New Zealanders did not appreciate the

Mackenzie mayor Graham Smith

This photo shows the Milky Way, looking southeast over the lake and the Lake Tekapo township.

Earth & Sky owners Hide Ozawa, left, and Graeme Murray, with Nga¯ i Tahu Tourism chief executive Quinton Hall.

asset they had in the night sky,’’ Murray said. From a humble coffee cart, the pair have now partnered with Nga¯ i Tahu Tourism to form the Dark Sky Project, a venture which offers a multi-media indoor experience and night sky tours.

‘‘Our staff went from two, 14 years ago, to this summer sitting around 110 I think, all to do with the stars,’’ Murray said.

The Mackenzie night sky is recognised internationally as a Dark Sky Reserve and there have been attempts in the past to gain Unesco World Heritage status.

Mackenzie district mayor Graham Smith said he wondered how the town would cope as he estimated visitor numbers were already doubling every year. ‘‘If we got World Heritage status . . . we would seriously have to contemplate how we were going to manage the tourists.’’

‘‘If we got World Heritage status . . . we would seriously have to contemplate how we were going to manage the tourists.’’