Published: 09.04.2024
Good evening,
Good night,
I took more photos.
I took a photo of the Milky Way. If you're reading this post, you may have to turn the lights in your room all the way down and then turn the lights on your screens all the way up so you can see what I saw and photographed that night. From Lake Tekapo, or rather from Mount John, which is easy to reach and is right next to the lake, I could see the Milky Way with the naked eye.
It was a starry sky - unbelievably beautiful. To make this view (which I had already seen from the campsite) even better, I put on my warm hiking gear at a quarter past 9 and hiked up to the south summit of Mount John.
I grabbed my headlamp and hiked up the track. The hike to the Mt. John Planetarium and back was planned to take 2.5 hours. But I actually managed to do the hike in about 1 hour. This was partly because I didn't walk to the observatory and possibly because my walking speed increased dramatically due to paranoia. I knew that the track wasn't difficult and that there were no real dangers in New Zealand in terms of animals. Alone in the forest, however, I did hear some strange noises and angles that made my step faster and longer until I (sometimes) stopped and listened. On the south summit I even met 2 other stargazers and then I built a small tripod out of stones so that I could use my exposure on my phone accordingly.
They really aren't perfect photos and I'm sure special cameras would do a much better job, but I think the photos turned out really well and I'm looking forward to being able to hang at least one of them in my future apartment.
And since I was a little too impatient with the first recordings, here is a short blooper:
I think this is almost art, don't you think? I also depicted the small village of Lake Tekapo.
After that I went to bed and was really happy that I had done this hike and that I had taken soooooo great photos. I also went a little beyond my own control to hike in the dark.
With that in mind: Reach for the stars! If they are too far away, just run a little higher. ;)
Your Britta