new Zealand
Mt Cook, an international stargazing destination with insane night skies and mountains! (We spend 3-5 nights here depending on weather). A 19 year old photographer born and raised on the South Island and a stargazing guide in Mt Cook, Tom Rae is a highly accomplished artist, with multiple prestigious night photography awards, a passion for sharing his home country’s beauty, and showing others a great time under the stars.
dates
February 22 - March 7th
Join astrophotography experts Derek Culver, Tom Rae, Bray Falls, and Andrew Imhoff, for two weeks of epic astro + photography adventures as we teach you how to capture the pristine southern hemisphere night skies, glow worm caves, and the otherworldly features of New Zealand!
We’ve partitioned this trip into two segments between the South and North Islands: The South Island we will be action packed, running and gunning at epic locations in the mountains; the North Island segment will be a bit more relaxed, still doing astro adventures like to Mt Taranaki while incorporating glow worm cave tours, deep space astro from our glamping accommodations under bortle 1 skies, chilling on world class beaches, and more editing sessions.
Our goal this trip is to tour you on a once in a lifetime trip, with great people, to amazingly beautiful night photography locations, while teaching you the techniques we use to capture it all!
Cost
The total cost of this workshop is $9,000. A $1,500 deposit is required to secure your spot, and the remainder of the payment is due January 3rd.
We expect this workshop to fill with all alumni, and are very conscious about who we let on this trip to create an unforgettable and memorable trip and learning experience together!
8/8 spots reserved
The glamping set up we stay at on the North Island (surrounded by Bortle 1-3 skies!) while we focus on Glow Worm caves, deep space, and editing images from our first week on the South Island!
logistics, lodging, & overview
This workshop is a small group photo tour (8 guests total) with 4 distinct professional instructors for 2 weeks, all hotel and transportation accommodations, several private glow worm cavern tours, a customized night photography itinerary with expert guiding around New Zealand, and some group meals!
What is not included is international airfare ($800-$1,500), flight between the islands ($70-$150). We will help with the Visa application and coordinating dates for flights which is very easy and can be done well in advance.
Once in New Zealand, we will arrange carpools with 2-3 larger passenger vans and be driving our group around together! Some folks may want to go rogue together with their own vehicle, which is great and we can discount for transportation. Between Andrew, Bray, myself, and Tom we will have plenty of drivers. We planned the workshop and locations to include the shortest drives possible, and may recruit some alumni to help drive at certain times! Getting around New Zealand is pretty straightforward, service is plentiful, and every one speaks english but with cute accents. We’ll stick to the itinerary, but you know how things go… gotta stay flexible sometimes! Especially on the South Island at Mt Cook and Lake Tekapo, we’ll make some changes once there depending on weather conditions but nothing crazy.
Accommodations: Shared accommodations throughout the trip; hotels, glamping tents, airbnb’s. Typically 1-2 people to a room depending on availability, we will mostly share rooms (separate beds, obviously!) as it helps us keep the cost of the trip down.
We currently have 3 glow worm cave/locations planned! This one on the North Island is my favorite. The glow, running streams, and darkness make it incredibly peaceful.
itinerary overview feb 22 - march 7
START: Arrive at Christchurch Airport (South Island) on February 22, consider flying in a day early on the 21st to adjust and leave room for any possible issues. We plan on being their early on the 21st, but we don’t officially start until the 22nd. East Coaster may want to fly out starting on the 20th and take a layover night on the West Coast San Fran or LAX where major flights pass through.
FLIGHTS: Fly into Christchurch on February 21st or 22nd (we start on the 22nd), fly from Queenstown to Aukland on the 1st of March, then fly out of Aukland on March 7th when we finish! Ideally you will need to book a 1 way ticket to Christchurch to be there on the 22nd, then a 1 one way ticket back home out of Aukland. We will book the inter-island ticket for March 1st together.
CONNECTING FLIGHT: We will all fly together from Queenstown (South Island) to Auckland (North Island) on March 1st. We will need to book flights together in advanced, which we will do during a zoom meeting in advanced in November or December.
FINISH: We finish our workshop near Waitomo Glow Worm caves on March 7th, and are a short 2.5 hour drive to the airport in Auckland (you’re welcome to stay longer, though!)
SOUTH ISLAND: February 22 - March 1 NORTH ISLAND: March 1 - 7
The first half of the night’s in New Zealand, the sky will look like this! From Lake Tekapo/Mt Cook region. We spend 5 nights in this area!
The second half of the night’s (early in to the AM) the night skiy will look like this! From Lake Tekapo/Mt Cook Region. We spend 5 nights in this area!
itinerary
night 1 February 22
We collect everyone in Christchurch (South Island), introduction, then we head out to the Castle Hill Region! We will have easy access to this playground of compositions and cool rock formations, underneath extremely dark skies. This will be easy and relaxed and give people time to adjust. We have a short drive here, then a short drive the next day to our new hotels in Lake Tekapo.
Night 2-3 February 23-24
We head up to the beautiful Lake Tekapo area. Mountains, lakes, and epic landscapes with some of the darkest and clearest skies on the South Island.
Night 4-7 February 25-28
Mt Cook area! If you want inspiration for this area, look at Tom Rae’s photos as he lives here. Truly magnificent area with tons of mountain compositions and dark skies. Deserves 3 nights, we can be flexible with Lake Tekapo as well depending on weather!
Night 8 February 28
Queenstown - Moke Lake. We head to Queenstown for a more chill night, but there are amazing comps to shoot here just depends on weather and energy levels at this point! We fly out the next morning to the North Island, which is a short 2 hour flight.
On March 1st we fly out of Queenstown to Auckland, and begin our adventures on the North Island! We will all ride to the airport together, and book our tickets together sometime this December or January! Tickets vary from $75-150 typically.
Night 1 march 1
We fly into Auckland and have a 1.5 hour to our hotel and first Glow Worm Cave tour on the North Island!
Night 2 March 2
A 3 hour drive back over to the Coromandel Peninsula which has beautiful beaches, private boat ride to Cathedral Cove during the day. We will return at night, either a mildly sketchy hike or private boat ride at night!
Night 3 March 3
We will stop at the Waimangu Volcanic Valley and Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland for a night!
Night 4-7 March 4-7
Glamping Stay at Wild Canvas which is close to all the Glow Worm Tours at Waitomo as well as a potential trip to Mt Taranaki and the White Cliffs- depends on weather! We will post up in this luxury glamping spot in Bortle 2 skies. Will be perfect to slow down and edit, shoot deep space directly from the lush grass fields surrounding the house, and also venture out to Mt Taranaki or the White Cliffs for a day/night adventure. We will be doing most of our Glow Worm tours during the day, from here as they are all under an hour drive.
March 7th
Unfortunately this trip has to end! We will drive every one back to the Airport in Auckland to fly home. Please try to book your ticket later than 10am, but we can accommodate any times. Ideally the flights will be between 11am and 4pm!
