Tramping and stargazing

You notice this is higher up in the mountains,  nights are really cold. Wearing flip flop in the morning feels a bit odd when its 3 degrees celcius. If you follow the road from the caravan park and take left at the hot springs you are on the track up to Mt John and the Observatory and Astro café. The Pathway zig-zag up the mountain, we did some climbing short cuts and 45 min later we where up at the windy top looking out at the magnificent landscape of Lake Tekapo.

Mountains and flat land all around. You have the same view from the Astro café but then together with a  nice cappuccino and cake in close reach. Full of cake energy Kalle, Vera and Oskar took the long walk down to the lake and then home. 

Pernilla and Klara chose to walk the same, quicker, zig-zag track home. It goes a lot quicker down hill, especially if you have a timer and race…

Nice to get back to the camper for a cup of hot tea and wait for 7:15 pick up by Earth and Sky for some stargazing. Before we left we put on all possible warm clothes, and we don’t have many. Luckily Earth and Sky provide you with thick warm jackets.

This night it was a bit unstable weather and snow was expected so clouds may come in and cover all the stars. 25% discount later we were in the bus and heading for the Mt John top once again. Nice to be back in a big warm jacket, and we came just in time to look at the sun through special sun binochulars.

Mt Cook

As it grew darker we watched different stars and galaxys through the telescope. Really fascinating to see stars up close, they can be so different from how you see them with your eyes only. 

An astro photographer also showed his special equipment. You need to have the camera moving, otherwise the stars becomes a bright track in the picture. 

Southern Cross