Dark Sky Project

We booked a nighttime tour at the summit of Mt John Observatory with Dark Sky Project, and it was an incredible experience. Our guide, Olive, was very knowledgeable and entertaining, making the evening both educational and fun. She explained the night sky in a way that was easy to understand, blending science with storytelling, and kept everyone engaged the whole time. The telescope views were unforgettable — we saw Saturn with its rings, beautiful star clusters, and even distant galaxies. The setting at Mt John Observatory made it all the more magical, with Tekapo’s famously clear skies providing some of the best stargazing conditions you could ever hope for. The whole tour was well-organised, professional, and absolutely a must-do when visiting Lake Tekapo.

Unfortunately, as many others have experienced, the weather wasn't on our side for the Summit tour.. which I think I may return to try do sometime in the future. The staff communicated our options great though. I do wish there was more Māori lore explained with the stars, we did get a bit, but not heaps. Not sure if this is shown more in the observatory though. My companions weren't as interested in that part as me so I didn't particularly seek it. Keep in mind if you book this, weather is temperamental in NZ, if you are staying in the area for multiple days, book this on your first night as if it needs to be rescheduled you are giving yourself your best shot. Stars and planets move, we were really lucky to see Saturn and it's rings, but because of the position and the brightness of the moon we couldn't see the galaxy clouds. The sky does what it wants to do, I will say that the staff were really helpful at showing you how to get photos of the moon

Very impressed with the staff. They generally were so friendly and helpful. I really enjoyed our visit. We would definitely suggest wrapping up warm though. I'd suggest booking on your first night though, incase it gets cancelled due to poor weather, then there is the potential to do it the next night. They have a great policy in place it the tour finishes up early.

What an amazing experience! If you have the time and chance (and good weather), go for the summit experience. Very friendly and knowledgeable team. The bus driver was great as well. Photos were taken from my iPhone. Got to look at planets and stars through the telescopes.

Good chocolate and nice view to be enjoyed here! The lake in front is lake tekapo with calm and peaceful weather. The time was freeze when I was there. I really like New Zealand.

Amazing experience which I cannot recommend enough. Our driver and guide, Quinna, was knowledgeable, warm and super friendly. She made it pleasant and easy to identify stars- and I can now proudly identify the alpha centuri and southern cross. Bonus points for helping me find my own scorpio constellation! Impressed and satisfied with the trip. Here are five stars for this amazing star team!

Booked summit experience at 30/08 but unfortunately got cancelled due to the gust, clouds and moon light pollution weather condition. Got offered for other indoor or crater tour. Was a harsh day for decision making and I be insanely stayed in the venue for near 4 hours to keep forecast information updated by the lead guide until I had an unexpected offer from one of the reception lady asked if I'd like to join their 11pm final tour on the day in a private tour model as other participants has pulled out, assigned me a BI lingual tour guide that speak my mother tongue which I did not need it IMO initially but turns out a very good and interesting experience for getting to know the stars facts in a mixture of East and West culture's astrology knowledge. Having all time to be concentrate by the guide and no need to que and wait for the use for telescope is just Jeez well worth the bucks! Not their premium tour but the opportunity and ANDY made it to next level experience. Thank you very much Andy, for providing a good stargazing experience and memories. Praise the Lead Guide, lovely reception staffs, Philippa and once again HERE'S YOUR WELL DESERVE FIVE STAR ANDY!

It's been 11 years since I was here last. Tekapo has definitely changed from the little country town I remember. The Dark Sky Project has done amazing work in the preservation of this Dark Sky site, now future generations will be able to experience the Darkest skies in the southern hemisphere, a photographers dream canvas! Thank you Dark Sky Project for the excellent preservation of this natural wonder!

Amazing.... Educational, interesting, spectacular views of stars, clusters, the moon.... Well informed and educated guides take you millions and billions of light years from home!;! Well worth the late night!

I really wanted to like this more! We had such high hopes as we entered the main building and waiting for our tour. Really nice cafe and gift shop that looked so professional - nice accommodations to set the experience. The building itself is so professional and had some really cool history on the project and observations that have been made here. It was awesome to see the telescope and read more about it! Ironically, I now wish we would have just done the experience there in that building they offer during the day/when the sky isn't clear. We booked the 10pm tour and as we gathered to start, the group was giddy with excitement. We had the option of jackets but it was nice out in the summer. We then boarded a coach bus that took us ~20 minutes up to a nearby peak where the observation tour is. It was partly cloudy that night, to no fault of the team, but once we arrived at the top the tour started to feel disjointed. The group was large, and not well managed - rude guests were talking loud, not listening, wandering off. Kids were yelling, laughing, interrupting the speakers - super distracting. I would have loved an adults only option or a more strict policy on keeping the group together and listening. I'd also love to see the tour leaders have microphones or something so all attendees can clearly hear. It was evident that the main tour guide was super knowledgeable, but it felt hard to understand at times since I'm a star/space novice. They had three stations where we went to different telescopes to see different types of star groupings which was cool, but felt disjointed at times with no clear organization. There was a lot of down time between going to the different telescopes, so I found myself asking a lot of questions, and then others would gather around so they could hear more info too. It felt like a steep price for peering into three telescopes, and I would have loved more general information on stars. We did get a 50% refund because it was cloudy and we couldn't see as much, which felt like the right price for the experience. I'm a bit town on whether I'd recommend this to others!

It was a very interesting experience, having never done something like this before! You can read the other reviews for full details, but effectively you get an informative tour about the Mt John Observatory (next door to Tekapo town), an introduction to the main stars and planets in the night sky, and then also a chance to use three of their telescopes to peer at various planets / stars. Overall, the tour is about 1hr 15mins in total I reckon (as total time end to end is 2 hours). Do wear warm, as even though we went on a summer night, and was told it was 10 degrees up there, it did get colder as the wind picked up! And you do a lot of standing around in the open. They do provide HUGE coats to borrow for free, definitely do take one. But bring a beanie and gloves too, if you have them. They are also rather ethical; if there is cloud cover, they will tell you before the tour starts, and you can opt for a refund. Note - this option is only for the Summit Experience, not for the cheaper Crater Experience. On our night, we were told before the tour that the skies were 80% clear, but there was risk of some movement of clouds from nearby. We were offered the choice of a refund, but we decided to go ahead. During the tour itself, the visibility got progressively worse. We were maybe 1hr into the tour, when they had to cut it short - the last 5-10 mins I believe. They offered a 50% refund to everyone, proactively. Which was a very fair result, IMO. Price-wise, its not cheap at NZD200+ per person. I wouldn't label it great value for money. But it is a very unique experience. Timing, I would say that the 10pm tour was a bit too early for peak-summer (1st Jan). The sun had barely set yet. I would say go for the tour at least 2 hours after sunset time, so you can get the full "dark sky" experience with all the stars visible. Do book in advance if you can, as the tour groups snatch up loads of tickets 6 months out, from what I've been told.

Cancelled more than 24 hours in advance. Spoke with someone and they assured that experience was cancelled. When returned to US was fully charged. Called to discuss, they were nice on phone but never followed through. Ultimately had to dispute transaction with credit card company. Wish I had booked an experience on get your guide or Viator that has reliable cancellation processes. This company is nice on the phone but makes it difficult to cancel. I question their business ethics. Horrible overall experience.

My husband and I were only in town for 1 night and had booked the Mt John Observatory tour for 11p. Around 7p a huge storm blew in and I was afraid it would be cancelled due to viability. We called around 10 for a status (it seemed to have cleared up by then) and they said to come on down (but didn't say whether it was on). Once the whole group was checked in, they announced that it was 95mph winds on the mountain, which was not safe to even drive us up. While I was totally bummed, they did offer several options: 1. a total refund; 2. rebook for tomorrow (which wasn't an option for us) or 3. get refunded the difference but do the crater experience. I didn't want to miss the "best stars in the world" so we did the crater experience. It was something you can't even describe it was so beautiful! The stars were so close, so bright and there were so many! I wanted to lay on the ground and just stare up at them since I was in so much awe. It felt like a dream. There were 2 different telescopes we could see clusters of stars through such as "the jewel box" and even Saturn's rings. Someone asked where the big dipper was when our tour guide reminded us that is a constellation of the Northern hemisphere...we were in the Southern. Mind blown- I hadn't even thought of that. This is a pretty incredible tour and you also learn about how bad light pollution is (headlights, porch lights, retail signs). They explain the Dark Sky Initiative and how important it is that we protect the night sky. Trust me- you will not regret this. They even offer some amazingly long, warm jackets to protect you from the bitter cold.