The Southern Lights of Queenstown

ONE of New Zealand’s less-known attractions is the frequency with which you can see the aurora — the Southern Lights — from the South Island.

The aurora, known in the Northern Hemisphere as the Aurora Borealis and in the Southern Hemisphere as the Aurora Australis, forms in an oval around the North and South Geomagnetic Poles of the Earth, respectively.

This happens as charged particles from the sun are steered into the atmosphere by the Earth’s magnetic field. The charged particles make the air glow in a similar fashion to the gases inside a neon sign.

The Geomagnetic Poles are tilted by about 10 degrees from the actual North and South Poles, and in the case of New Zealand, this tilt is in our direction.

This puts us as close to the South Geomagnetic Pole as many places in northern Europe are to the North Geomagnetic Pole.

There’s a famous song called ‘The Northern Lights of Aberdeen.’ Well, Queenstown is about as close to the South Geomagnetic Pole as Aberdeen is to the North Geomagnetic Pole.

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One of the best places in Queenstown to view the aurora is the suburb where I live, Fernhill.

Up in Broadview Rise, Fernhill, there is a viewing spot informally known as Aurora Point. It is indicated with the yellow arrow in the following aerial photo, which also identifies Broadview Rise with an orange marker.

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Aurora Point is also where a prominent rock called the Hot Dog Stone rests, so-called because it has a kind of threefold structure looking uphill.

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There is also an Aurora Point, quite unrelated, on the western shores of Lake Te Anau, opposite Centre Island. This is obviously harder to get to.

Here are some photos I’ve taken elsewhere in the suburbs of Queenstown. The next two show the aurora above and houses below.

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The following photo is much the same as the first of these aurora pictures, but shows traffic on the road to Glenorchy as white and red snakes.

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The next one shows a really purple sky.

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Cameras and smartphones often yield a better image of the aurora than you can see with the naked eye. I know that photographers with cameras that can do time exposures get good results, but I was surprised to see just how good it was just with my smartphone.

I got the pictures above in November 2025, but you can see auroras at any time of the year, though they are only visible from New Zealand when the sun is ‘geomagnetically active,’ that is to say, throwing off a lot of particles.

The best time of night to view is around midnight, partly because it is darkest and partly also because the ring of auroras, which is indeed oval, not circular, tends to extend its longer axis toward the midnight side of the Earth while hugging the Geomagnetic Pole more closely in the other three directions.

Thus, for someone in New Zealand, the skies will be darker around midnight, and the auroras will also be closer to New Zealand as well.

Here are some Facebook groups used by local Aurora-spotters: you can click on each icon to go to the group. (The membership and public status of each group are as of the time of writing.)

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There is also a Facebook group that offers aurora photography tours, though it seems dormant as of the time of writing; but keep an eye out for it!

You may also wish to check out the Otago University Aurora Australis Alert website and Spot the Aurora for advice about when the Aurora Australis is next to appear in the south of New Zealand.

If you liked this post, check out my book about the South Island! It’s available for purchase from my website, a-maverick.com.

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