When the Stars Align - Episode 2
- birley1
- Sep 26, 2024
- 9 min read
My 9 day 8 night journey along the East Coast of the South Island of New Zealand
Day 2 Sunday 01 September
The calm before the storm - Literally
Day two was mostly a travel and explore day. I only slept for two of the 8 nights while away and this ended up being one of those nights!
I guess this day officially started while I was still at Waipapa Point Lighthouse. As I said in my first blog, the Aurora kicked off again just on midnight and gave me another little burst of colour and while I still got quite a few more hours of clear skies in, the clouds eventually rolled in around 2AM.
That was my signal to head back to the car where I made the decision to head back North to Nugget Point Lighthouse for sunrise.
Both Waipapa Point Lighthouse and Nugget Point Lighthouse are adorned with Bortle 1 skies. Skies are classified into a sliding Bortle scale from 1 (best dark skies in the world) - 8 (most light polluted in the world). There are also light pollution maps on the web that can help you find the darkest skies. The darker the skies the better the astro photography. NZ is very lucky to have many very dark sky locations!
Here is a link to one such light pollution map
Below is an image of and link to one of the best images and descriptions of the Bortle scale (credit to Trevor Dobson of Astro Backyard https://astrobackyard.com/)
Here is another link on what the Bortle Scale is all about
Some of the apps we use, like Clear Outside below, also give you an idea of what the Bortle classification is of a location - the apps these days really make life much easier and are worth their weight in gold.
The drive was pretty eventless but that should be expected considering it was at stupid o clock. I arrived at Nugget Point with enough time to head down to the lighthouse before any sunrise colour appeared on the horizon. By this stage the cloud had well and truly rolled in and was pretty thick.
I had hoped to try capture a few images of the lighthouse adorned by stars but that was not to be. The cloud, however, was pretty high and so got me excited at the prospect of a beautiful sunrise.
I gave up on capturing any stars and made my way a little further back up the track to a better vantage point to capture sunrise.
Another phenomenon I absolutely love capturing is the green flash at sunrise. Now if you have not heard of this before, basically it is a phenomenon caused by the refraction of light the split second before the sun either breaks the horizon at sunrise or after it drops below the horizon at sunset. It is more common and well known around sunsets as it is easier to follow the trajectory of the sun setting to know the exact point where it will drop below the horizon - not so easy for sunrise but it is that challenge that I love.
There appeared to be the smallest of gaps on the horizon and while the sky was adorned in clouds, I felt excited that there could just maybe be enough of a gap on the horizon to witness and possibly capture the elusive green flash at such a renowned sunrise location.
As sunrise neared so the sky went all shades of orange - but only close to the horizon. It did not light up the entire sky but it was one of the richest shades of orange I have seen on the horizon. As the sky was not lighting up as I had hoped, I changed my focus toward the green flash and prepped the "moon bazooka" (aka Sigma 150-600mm lens) and locked it in on where I thought the exact spot will be where the sun will break the horizon.
To my delight I was able to witness the green flash at sunrise once more. This one was very visible to the naked eye and I was also fortunate to capture the flash too.
I spent the next while taking images of the sun as it rose as well as some images of the locals. The birds and birdsong were amazing as well as the seals way down below. I looked out for the penguins but was not lucky enough to see or capture any of them.
It was eventually time to make my way back to Dunedin. I had not hatched a plan for the night yet but I knew the clear skies were moving North and so that was where I was headed. I made my way to the first big town, Balclutha, where it was time for breakfast and a well earned coffee.
The forecasts were not showing too many clear skies unfortunately but the best of the worst showed Dunedin and further North toward Oamaru and Timaru to stand the best chance of, at best, partly cloudy skies. Based on that I decided that I would make this night a "if it was cloudy I would try get a good night's sleep night". I decided to try find some accommodation as a good night's rest would serve me well for the long week ahead. I was unable to secure a place to stay in Dunedin and while camping or staying in the car did not bother me I felt I needed somewhere to offload all my gear and, more importantly I had many batteries and other devices that needed to be charged too. That is one downside of not having accommodation as charging vast amounts of batteries and devices etc. becomes a problem. I carry several external chargers but they too then need charging and can take a long time to charge too. Being on the road has it's downsides like having to find places to freshen up and brush your teeth etc etc. Luckily I am not phased in the least bit by any of this and am happy to just take everything on the fly and make a plan - public restrooms become your friend.
I also had this feeling I needed to get further North anyway - you know that little voice - so I looked for possible places on Google a little further North of Dunedin. I came across a camp ground in Kakanui, not far from another wish list/bucket list location I have wanted to visit since arriving in NZ - Moeraki Boulders. They had a little cabin for me which was all I needed. The forecasts for this area were also 50/50 but no worse and no better than anywhere else and so my plan was put into place. This would also place me in a location that had both clear skies forecast and a great vantage point for the following night when the storm was due to arrive and so I decided to book for two nights and use that as home base for a few days.
Along the way I had one more stop to make at another location I had heard so much about - Tunnel Beach - before leaving the big smoke.
I ate breakfast and enjoyed my coffee and then it was off on my journey North. I had considered doing an Albatross tour too but that took me a little off course and so decided to give that a miss.
Tunnel Beach, like everywhere else I had been so far was truly incredible. One thing I would advise is while the walk down is a doddle, the return is all up hill. And while it would normally not phase me one bit, after an all nighter that involved a lot of running around and carrying of decently heavy gear, the uphill return did prove a little tougher than it should have been. Add to that, the crazy heat - while it was crazy windy at the top and entrance, the walk down was completely sheltered by the wind and Dunedin was putting on the heat. I was sweating up a storm on the walk back up!
Tunnel Beach is worth a visit if ever you are there. It truly is incredible and my images do not do it justice. When you walk down and through the tunnel and come out in the bay below, it is as if you are entering an amphitheatre with enormous cliffs flanking all around and the deep blue, endless ocean to the front. I was awe struck.
After the struggle fest to get back up, it was time for a little lunch and the final stretch North.
I decided I would stop in at Moeraki Boulders along the way to get my first glimpse of these world renowned boulders. Truth be told, I was not expecting much as I have always thought how interesting can round boulders really be! I cannot tell you how pleased I was to be so wrong. There is something about that place. When I arrived, the tide was coming in and there was no beach left. I had to brave the freezing water if I wanted to make my way to them and trust me, I was going to make my way to them no matter what.
I did maybe shriek a little higher pitched than usual when my little toetsies (toes) made first contact with the sea! Also being of hobbit stature, there was always the risk of getting my under carriage soaked and considering the temperature of the sea, that would not be a good thing. On the plus side, anything that came into close contact with the water virtually froze on contact and went numb - so it didn't take long for all feeling to disappear from my knees down!
I have way better images of the boulders to come but on the first day I arrived there the light was too harsh and the sun in the worst position to attempt to get anything worthwhile. PS if you are wondering how I managed to get long exposure shots in the middle of the day, it is a feature on the iPhones - if you haven't yet, you should give it a try - it is pretty cool and can make an over exposed middle of the day "meh" image look sort of ok!
I spent a fair amount of time around the Moeraki boulders as I instantly was drawn to this place. Once again, as had been proven a few times already on my trip, this place superseded my expectations. I decided it was time to head out to the accommodation I had booked , the Kakanui campground. Again, I was pleasantly surprised by this little campground. I had booked myself a small self catering cabin as I would not need anything more. It was just perfect. Enough space for me to store all my gear as well as a kettle and a little fridge. As long as I am able to make coffee, the rest is arbitrary!
I spent the next while just unpacking and getting all my gear onto charges, etc. I’m sure I pushed their power bill through the roof that afternoon with the amount of batteries and charging I needed to do.
Having had an all nighter the night before and no chance to really freshen up, it was about time I had a shower, freshened up and had a bite to eat.
By the time I was done eating it was already close to sunset and so decided, even though it is facing East and in the wrong direction, to head back down to the boulders in the hopes of catching a little bit of colour from the belt of Venus.
Unfortunately by the stage I got there the clouds had rolled in, and while not totally overcast, there was not much blue sky left to be found. Once it got dark, and there was no real chance of any Astro I head back to the camping ground to have some dinner. I always ensure I take a handful of backcountry dry meals with me on these trips in case I am unable to find somewhere to get food. They are Lifesavers and don't taste too bad tbh. However, without my trusty rusty Jet Boil that plan would be useless. I did not have time to find anywhere to buy any fresh food nor did I see anywhere where I could get a takeaway meal so it was a backcountry meal for dinner. After dinner I decided to take a walk around the campground just to see whether there would be a possibility of heading out for some stars. The incredible thing about this little campground was that it was exceptionally dark and so I literally just had to walk outside my cabin and look up and get a glorious view of the night sky. Unfortunately, as had been forecast, the cloud had rolled in, and while you could still see the odd star, there was way too much cloud to bother chasing the night sky. It was at this point I decided it may not be such a bad thing for me to get some sleep, I had just done and all nighter after all and added to that a lot of driving and running around too. It did kill me going to bed knowing there was always a possibility though. The clouds could clear but the benefits of sleep outweighed the low probability of clear skies.
So it was a good night from me and see you on the morning of day 3!
Once again a big thank you and shout out to my mate Matthew Davison (https://www.youtube.com/@ExtremePursuit)
Smugmug
Gear List
Canon R6 MKii
Canon 5D Mark IV
Sigma 28mm f/1.4
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
Sigma 150-600mm
Canon 24-105mm
Skywatcher Star Adventurer Pro Tracker
iPhone 13 Pro
K&F Tripods
Shimoda Camera Bag
Apps
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