Last night's trip to the observatory was such a great experience! It is jointly run by the University of Canterbury and Nagoya University in Japan, and is up on Mt John at 1031m (about 300m above Lake Tekapo). I checked in at the Earth and Sky Centre in the village at 11.45pm and we were given big warm coats and driven 4km up the hill in a shuttle bus. About half way up the hill, the driver had to turn off the headlights so as not to interfere with the telescopes - he did assure us that he was on a full carrot diet mind...

Even down in the village, the sky looked absolutely full of stars because Tekapo is so remote and it was such a clear night, but up on the hill, it was something else! They give you a couple of minutes once up there for your eyes to adjust, but you pretty much spend the tour stumbling around in the darkness, looking up and going back and forth between telescopes.

The tour guides used green lasers to point out everything of interest that could be seen with the naked eye - including Jupiter, the Southern Cross and the nearest two galaxies amongst others. They have the most powerful telescope in New Zealand up there, but that was being used for imaging and research - looking for signs of life on other planets apparently! We did get to use three other good telescopes though, and this allowed us to see a number of amazing things, including The Tarantula, The Jewel Box, The Sombrero Galaxy (30 million light years away!) and many other cool things I can't remember the names of! The most impressive thing was not only being able to see Saturn, but also its rings! It looks just like in the pictures in textbooks, crazy stuff!

There were loads of shooting stars around too and we were able to see a comet through one of the telescopes. Halfway through the tour, someone appeared in the shadows behind us with a tray of hot chocolate for everyone, pretty good service!

I'm so glad that I did the tour, although I did find it all a bit overwhelming. I can't really process the idea of all those other things so much bigger than us and ridiculously far away from us. Like really, I was seeing what those things looked like a thousand years ago, or however many light years away they are. It all seems like a bit of a fantasy... My brain isn't big enough to take it in. It made me feel very small that's for sure!

This morning, I chilled out by Lake Tekapo having got to bed eventually at 3am. I was picked up again by the Kiwi bus this afternoon to head back to Christchurch, where I am now staying in my fourth different place in the city: a hostel called the Old Countryhouse. It's fairly near the centre, although of course the centre is pretty much just construction sites and rubble.

My picture today is a bit different but I thought it was funny: when we were driving to Christchurch, we passed a car coming the other way with a big flashing sign above it saying: "Warning: house follows!" And sure enough, along came a truck carrying a house! Whatever next!

I've been for a nice run along the Avon and through the Botanic Gardens and I'm now very sad that this is the end of my tour of New Zealand. I am so, so sad to be leaving the beautiful mountains, lakes and countryside behind, but tomorrow I'll be flying to Sydney to start the next chapter of my adventure...