Today we did some more exploring around Lake Tekapo. Lupin season is here, which are these beautiful flowers that grow wild around the lake….

But the real highlight of the day, was the end of the day. We went stargazing with a professional guide. There was no fancy observatory - just a very dark field. They gave us very comfortable reclining lawn chairs so we could easily stare upward, blankets (it was cold!) and hot chocolate while he taught (or at least tried) us about constellations, galaxies and light years (still just looks like lots of beautiful stars to me). It was late, and I was sure that it was a perfect scenario for Tom to fall asleep - but he proved me wrong! Lake Tekapo claims to be the largest dark sky reserve in the world. Not sure if that is accurate, but the night skies and stars are amazing. Our guide had all kinds of special cameras and telescopes, and took some pics of us…

And through the telescope of what we saw. It was really cool…

Showed us how to take some photos for ourselves on our iPhones..

We also learned that the southern lights are a different color (pinks and violets) from the northern lights because we are on the opposite side of the world and therefore the color spectrum. I wish I could say that we were able see all of the colors from these photos with our own eyes, but they really only really showed up with the camera lens. Still very cool though. They finished off the night with a fire and marshmallow roast (Tom’s highlight). Memorable for sure!