May 2024 – Aurora Australis

Ever since we moved down to Christchurch we have occasionally seen stories in the news about the Aurora Australis (Southern Lights) accompanied by stunning photographs taken in and around many of the places we know on the South Island. For a variety of reasons, we have never managed to be in the right place at the right time to actually see them for ourselves.

Finally, when a solar storm occurred in May, everything aligned for us to head out to Kaituna Quarry not far from home to see them for ourselves. Initially the lights weren’t especially bright, although looking through a camera lens helped. After a while we started to get quite cold, as it was pretty close to freezing out, so we decided to head back. As we stopped to take one last look, we were amazed to see that the Aurora had strengthened significantly so we turned back to get a second look. Below are a few photos from the evening.