Dark Sky Project

Neo was our fabulous guide for the "Dark Sky Experience" an indoor hands on with visual and audio spectacular to inspire young & old enthusiasts gain knowledge about how Astronomy has been incorporated into the beautiful Maori people lives, how to find true south & the stellar constellations. The Brashear telescope and new technology is also introduced. The Dark Sky cafe & shop nearby topped the experience !

Very nice experience. Because of wind we could not do the summit experience and were offered the crater experience (with the difference refund).. the explanations were great. We wished they will give more Māori stories or references. The telescopes itself were the part we enjoyed the least, you really could not see anything clear. We were lucky that the skies were super clear

We had booked the Summit Experience in English a few days in advance. Lucky us we were able to sneak the past two seats. The Dark Sky Project offers warm jackets for free on the tour. Grab one - it can get cold just standing out there on Mt John. Our driver Nilo had a very cool playlist on the bus, all songs were related to stars / rockets and even „What a wonderful world“ was played. On the summit we were picked up by Marina who was our night guide with an immense knowledge of the stars in the southern hemisphere. Her colleague Oscar and Kaizu showed us the telescopes. We were able to see Jupiter and Alpha Centauri, Magellan and many more - it was simply amazing. Make sure you enjoy the night not just through your phone screen but with your eyes. If you are in the area book a tour and enjoy the super dark area with little light pollution!!

10/10 experience for this. Highlight of my entire NZ trip. You’d never think that there’s so many stars in the sky! What more, they can be seen with the naked eye, even the Milky Way! (Also managed to catch a few shooting stars and even satellites!) Using the telescope we even managed to see Saturn and its rings! Staff was very upfront about visibility chances as well. We were offered the option of refund or to change the tour to another day if we’d like. There’s also a virtual tour if you cannot make the outdoor tours. Big thank you to Marina, Queeny and Oscar! This tour is not to be missed!

We signed up for the 1:30am crater tour. Unfortunately the clouds were not in our favour for the trip, and we could not see very much. We did still get to see Jupiter, the moon and Alpha Centauri through telescopes which was cool. The main guide Kieran was very knowledgable and taught us about the Southern Cross alongside facts about the moon. We were informed we would be getting a 50% discount which seems fair seeing as it is not their fault the clouds were making it tricky. A bit more communication about the weather prior to embarking on the trip would have been helpful. When we asked a staff member at their base, she said to speak to the guide about our concerns with the weather - which is not helpful seeing as the guide is where the telescope are!

Crater experience: we went as family (with teenagers). The whole family enjoyed seeing the dark sky with the naked eye and through the telescopes. Learn about maori and use of stars in navigation. 100% worth the late night.

Loved the Crater experience. It was all very thoughtful with transport from the main office to the location and exceptional experience with being able to see through various telescopes. The host was super informative and engaging, and happy to take any questions as well. The thoughtfulness of being able to give everyone warm coats was an added layer. Would highly recommend.

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

We were on our way to Lake Tekapo when we stopped by the Dark Sky Project. They have a lovely café and gift shop, so we walked in to take a look around. The large telescope on display was impressive, and we enjoyed a hot cup of tea--especially after visiting the lake, where it was extremely cold and windy that day. The café also offered a selection of pastries, and the space was clean and welcoming. While we didn't join any of the Dark Sky tours, it was still a nice place to warm up, browse, and take a quick break. They also have convenient restroom facilities available.

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.

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.

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.