Experiencing the Southern Lights: A Must-See in New Zealand

One of the things I really wanted to see while we were in New Zealand was the Southern Lights. Neither of us had ever even see the Northern Lights before, let alone the Southern Lights. Luckily for us, this year has seemed to be quite the year for solar activity, and there have been a couple of massive magnetic solar storms while we have been in New Zealand. Some of these solar storms were strong enough to make the Northern Lights visible as far south as Alabama.

The first time we saw the Southern Lights, or Aurora Australis, was completely by accident. We were travelling up to the northernmost part of the North Island, which is where statistically you are the least likely to get a glimpse of the Southern Lights. Neither of us knew the solar storm was going on, and Eric was outside locking up the van (around 9pm) for the night when he noticed a strange red glow up in the sky. He called me outside to check it out, and sure enough, it was the southern lights! Again, having never seen the lights before, I was initially a little unsure of what the red light was, assuming that the lights would be green. It turns out that the lights are different colors depending on the makeup of elements in the atmosphere. So, where we were, since we were pretty far away from where the center of the solar storm was, the light was appearing to us as red.

The lights, while still visible to the human eye, show up much brighter and more vivid in pictures. I did not yet know exactly how to format my nicer camera to take photos of the sky, so we relied on our cell phones. It is pretty incredible how much light the iPhones are able to bring into the pictures, and made the photos of the lights seem a lot more vivid than they actually were to us. We watched them until the red pretty much disappeared from our vision, and headed to bed, pretty thankful that we were lucky enough to see them.

Fast forward several months, and I was determined to see the lights again before we fly back home. After the first chance sighting, I joined some Facebook groups that helped keep me informed as to when there would be another solar storm. After many failed attempts, either being too far north, or too close to a city, or it being too cloudy for us to see, we got another chance to see a massive solar storm.

This time, we were much more prepared. We happened to be in the North Island again (unfortunately), but picked a spot that would put us away from light pollution and face the south. We were in Opunake, which is the southern tip of Taranaki, and were hoping to get two nights worth of lights with this upcoming storm. The spot we chose was on a cliff overlooking the ocean, looking south; it was about as perfect of a spot as we could ask for.

The thing about the lights, or the Dancing Lady as my Facebook groups call them, is that you don’t know they’re actually coming until it is about an hour away. The nature of solar storms is much different than normal weather, and due to this, we have limited notice to when a storm may be coming. I was pretty reliant on the group to inform me when we would see the lights, and made sure we set several alarms the first night. Each time we woke up, we would check the group and peak outside, trying to see if we had anything. Finally, around 5:00am, we started to see something, again jut a faint glow. After a few cold and very groggy minutes, the lights started to brighten up. The lights this time were a bright pink, and with the coming sunrise, it was really beautiful. We watched them for about an hour, as the sun started to come up, they eventually disappeared. The photos of the lights with the sun beginning to rise is really cool, but it did cut our light show a little short.

Solar storms tend to make the Aurora visible for a day, sometimes two. Since this was said to be a big storm, we were hoping it would carry over into the following night. So, we spent the rest of the day waiting for it to get dark, hoping that it would stick around long enough for us to see them again. We were very happy with our camp spot, which provided a perfect overlook right out the back door of The Van, so we decided to stay for another night. You could tell that a lot of people were hoping to glimpse the lights this time, because by the time the sun was starting to set, there were a lot of cars parked up at the camp spot, waiting. It was also a Friday night, which I’m sure encouraged a lot more people to get out and try to see the show.

As expected, as soon as it actually got dark outside, we were able to glimpse the lights. Unfortunately, they were pretty faint to our eyesight, and the moon was bright (it had already set by the time we saw the lights the night before), so I’m sure that didn’t help. That all being said, I finally figured out how to set up the preferences and change the settings on my camera to best capture the lights. This mainly involved bringing our shutter speed WAY down (to 20 seconds) and bringing the ISO to 6400, to help reduce the camera shake (which is important because we don’t have a tripod). I also set it to shoot in both JPEG and RAW, so that I could have images to share immediately, while also keeping some that I can edit a little more in depth once I’m back home.

The trick is to find the brightest star you can (or the moon), and focus your camera on it. That way, it is focused on the sky and will take a nice clear photo. This was something I struggled with a little bit, especially having to focus and then set up the camera somewhere else for the photo itself.

As I mentioned before, we did not have a tripod, so we had to get a little creative. We mostly used the roof of the van, using our roll of duct tape to help angle the camera correctly, and also used a nearby fencepost for a couple of the shots. We spent a good amount of time taking tons of photos, including some where we would jump in to create a fun silhouette of ourselves with the lights in the background. We both had a lot of fun, and despite how chilly it was, we spent the whole time outside taking photos. As you can see, the lights on this night were a little more pink and purple, unlike the bright red we saw the very first time.

It was an incredible experience, and I feel so lucky that we got to see the Southern Lights, not one, not two, but three times while we were in New Zealand. After seeing the Southern Lights, we are determined to find the Northern Lights, and I feel a lot more educated and confident about chasing the lights after successfully doing it here in New Zealand (Iceland, we’re coming for you). For those who are curious, there are also apps, I used one simply called Aurora, my Facebook group likes one called the Glendale App, that help to show you the conditions and the probability of seeing the lights in your area. There’s a lot of science behind it, and I’m slowly learning more, but it’s definitely a topic that I have a lot of learning still to do.

But for now, we’re both thankful that we got to see the lights at all, and I hope you enjoy the photos that we took. Again, I’m still learning how to use my camera in all the different lighting and conditions, and these are the unedited versions, but nonetheless, both Eric and I are pleased with the photos we got to remember these experiences by.