Dark Sky Project
Mount / Mt John Observatory
Enquire
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Call and discuss your needs.
Maps
Details
| Feature | Value | Info |
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Organisation |
Earth and Sky ToursCommercial organisation |
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Location |
South Island ▷ Mount Cook - MacKenzie ▷ Lake Tekapo |
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Categories |
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Directions To Office |
Scenic Attractions
Reviews
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4.5/5
The $5 entry charge at the bottom of the hill is well worth it.
Stunning scenery particularly on a clear day. Nice cafe if you need a snack. Lots of pictures taken.
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5.0/5
Equipped with polar jackets and red light torches.
We were brought up to the Mt John Observatory by bus. Amazing night sky viewed and explained by enthusiastic guides/researchers.
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4.0/5
Beautiful walk from the carpark besides Lake Tekapo.
Ends at the Observatory. There is a possibility to watch stays in the night. The views from there are stunning. AstroCafe in the same area has good caves, coffee and reasonable prices.
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4.0/5
You need to pay $5 for the road to the observatory.
Well worth it. Incredible view from the top and good coffee. Take the spacey Cappucino!
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3.0/5
We had clear sky making great viewing.
Knowledgable and social guide. Sam Jupiter and 4 moons, Saturn and a number of mini galaxies etc. Better value if half the $95 price. Rug up!
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5.0/5
Very interesting tour, smart and well known guide who showed us several objects and told us a lot about them.
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4.0/5
Blessed with a crystal clear night and no moon, plus two knowledgable hosts.
Quite pricey but a great way to pick up some astro information.
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0.5/5
This was purchased as a Birthday Gift for me, from my partner and his parents; in December.
Unethical Business & Bad Service
We are Queenstown residents. Paid $290.00 full price for 2 people to go on the tour which includes Star Gazing. (kind of the whole point)
Unfortunately, even though the expiry date is noted on the Voucher, we didn't look at the expiry date and assumed this would be valid for 1 year as most GC are 1 Year. However Earth & Sky choose to make their expiry date only six months. We didn't realize until May that it was expiring at the end of May. We have full time jobs and commitments so I called and spoke with someone; asked if we could extend the voucher for a few months as we don't have very many opportunities to get out to Tekapo. (3.5 hours one way from Queenstown) She was quite rude and stated that the terms and conditions are clearly written on the voucher. Then reluctantly said she could only extend for one month. Unfortunately with only 1 month extension we had to change plans and make arrangements but we made it to Tekapo this past weekend; only to find that the weather had taken a turn and a storm was coming in.
It was terribly cold and windy and we were advised by staff there was 100% cloud cover; and that everyone could either go on the tour and have the "presentation" (in the cold crazy wind) without star gazing; or we could get a full refund (minus the booking fee of $20).
But this refund did not apply to us, as we have a Gift Voucher. (which we paid full price for.)
We were really disappointed that Star Gazing wasn't an option that night and really wanted the full experience since we've already paid $290.00.
i've since spoken with the Manager "Mili" and Admin Manager "Wendy" and they've both advised that they cannot extend the voucher any longer, and will not honor or refund the voucher. Wendy, she was quite rude saying "it's all there in the terms and conditions".
My partner called as well and Wendy hung up on him.
Sad
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4.5/5
This is not really an observatory tour, as some reviews suggest, but organized star gazing from the hilltop of the Mt.
John Observatory (the research equipment is in unvisited buildings). As others note, they will cancel if the weather might interfere: if this is an important tour for you, allow some extra time in case of cancellation. We were up on a full moon (only window of time we had)--again, if important you might like to aim for a moonless (or crescent moon) night where the darkness of this area will be shown to best advantage. A guide points out some of the key features of the southern sky before all get to see a number of objects through a large domed scope and several smaller telescopes all manned by guides. An astrophotography setup is also available. This setup allows visitors to be looking through a telescope most of the time, so you don't have a lot of down time. For casual visitors and those from the northern hemisphere this is a fun tour. For advanced amateurs from the southern hemisphere this might be a bit thin, though the guides are pretty knowledgeable.
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4.5/5
The $5 entry charge at the bottom of the hill is well worth it.
Stunning scenery particularly on a clear day. Nice cafe if you need a snack. Lots of pictures taken.
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5.0/5
Equipped with polar jackets and red light torches.
We were brought up to the Mt John Observatory by bus. Amazing night sky viewed and explained by enthusiastic guides/researchers.
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4.0/5
Beautiful walk from the carpark besides Lake Tekapo.
Ends at the Observatory. There is a possibility to watch stays in the night. The views from there are stunning. AstroCafe in the same area has good caves, coffee and reasonable prices.
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3.0/5
We had clear sky making great viewing.
Knowledgable and social guide. Sam Jupiter and 4 moons, Saturn and a number of mini galaxies etc. Better value if half the $95 price. Rug up!
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4.0/5
You need to pay $5 for the road to the observatory.
Well worth it. Incredible view from the top and good coffee. Take the spacey Cappucino!
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0.5/5
This was purchased as a Birthday Gift for me, from my partner and his parents; in December.
Unethical Business & Bad Service
We are Queenstown residents. Paid $290.00 full price for 2 people to go on the tour which includes Star Gazing. (kind of the whole point)
Unfortunately, even though the expiry date is noted on the Voucher, we didn't look at the expiry date and assumed this would be valid for 1 year as most GC are 1 Year. However Earth & Sky choose to make their expiry date only six months. We didn't realize until May that it was expiring at the end of May. We have full time jobs and commitments so I called and spoke with someone; asked if we could extend the voucher for a few months as we don't have very many opportunities to get out to Tekapo. (3.5 hours one way from Queenstown) She was quite rude and stated that the terms and conditions are clearly written on the voucher. Then reluctantly said she could only extend for one month. Unfortunately with only 1 month extension we had to change plans and make arrangements but we made it to Tekapo this past weekend; only to find that the weather had taken a turn and a storm was coming in.
It was terribly cold and windy and we were advised by staff there was 100% cloud cover; and that everyone could either go on the tour and have the "presentation" (in the cold crazy wind) without star gazing; or we could get a full refund (minus the booking fee of $20).
But this refund did not apply to us, as we have a Gift Voucher. (which we paid full price for.)
We were really disappointed that Star Gazing wasn't an option that night and really wanted the full experience since we've already paid $290.00.
i've since spoken with the Manager "Mili" and Admin Manager "Wendy" and they've both advised that they cannot extend the voucher any longer, and will not honor or refund the voucher. Wendy, she was quite rude saying "it's all there in the terms and conditions".
My partner called as well and Wendy hung up on him.
Sad
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0.5/5
This was the only thing we did on our trip that we didn't check on rankers first, and we certainly paid for it!
Disappointing to say the least. We we're very excited for this and to learn more about the stars. It was a pretty cold windy night (11 degree), the bus dropped us up the top of Cowan's observatory & our guide talked for about 15 mins abort the sky which we found interesting.... But freezing! We then had 3 telescopes among the 25 or so of us there to look at some stars, which honestly looked the same as with the naked eye, the sane magnification and wow small.... pretty unimpressive and for the rest of the 80 minutes that's was it. Honestly the star apps on your tablet can give you more info and be more interactive. If your visiting NZ I highly recommend the Antarctic center in Christchurch for an enjoyable 1/2 day for the whole family for $53 each online tickets - we loved it and learned so much compared to this which was $90 each and I feel it was a waste of money unfortunately.
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1.5/5
Night tour way to pricy.
Just look outside during the night for free, it's amazing!!
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4.0/5
Blessed with a crystal clear night and no moon, plus two knowledgable hosts.
Quite pricey but a great way to pick up some astro information.
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1.0/5
Would seam this company has a problem ??
,,, bar for the last 2 reviews, looked a good trip
However, I can only confirm most of the last 2 comments,,
We did the 11pm tour on Fri 6th December,, a large group in 2 coaches, which were put into 2 groups, one with 25 of us with a English commentary, and 5 with Japanese's
Total time spent at Mount John, from getting off the bus, to getting back on, was 65 mins, the rest of the time is waiting in the office, or the 30 mins travelling time,,
Could not use our cameras etc, as told too windy, which it was,, VERY !!! ,,The guide seam quite knowledgeable, but not able to put across to the normal layman tourist.
Probably the worse tour of our 6 weeks trip to NZ,, shame really,
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1.0/5
There was far too many people on the tour.
The information given was very basic and a limited amount. As the group was so large in our 2 hour tour we only saw 5 objects through the telescope! which meant the majority of the 2 hours was spent queueing to look through the telescope and all the queueing was done in silence!
The only bonus is the true dark sky, just a shame they dont take advantage of this and give us a bit more information, or have smaller groups so we can see more objects.
There are better tours of this type on the south island and for a better price!
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1.0/5
This was supposed to be one of the highlights of our visit to New Zealand and ended up being the only disappointment.
This was supposed to be one of the highlights of our visit to New Zealand and ended up being the only disappointment. The 9pm tour was full, so took the 11pm tour which was supposed to be a smaller group. If two busloads is small I would hate to see a large group. When we arrived, our guide led us up to the first point of the tour, but did not wait until we were all gathered to start the tour. We were in a long line, 30 plus people, going from the parking lot up the walkway to the first gathering spot and the guide is talking the whole way. We no idea what he was talking about. Once we all assembled, we did get a informative short star tour before we were lead into one of the observatories. In the observatory we were able to see a nebula through a telescope that normally is mounted with a camera...this was a bonus. The problem was we had 30 plus people packed into a small observatory in the dark. Being that many people in the dark it was very difficult to organize who had the next turn to look through the telescope...this wasted a lot of time. This was also the odd time for the operators to bring in hot chocolate...nice gesture, but we are cramped, in the dark...now hand us hot liquids? Once we left the observatory we could see the bank of clouds I noticed when we arrived was almost over us, but they seemed to be surprised. This is their careers and home turf, how could they be surprised. At home I can have a darn good idea what will happen in the next 2 hours....especially with the available weather data they have. I know New Zealand weather is difficult to predict, but they are sitting on top of the mountain and could see the clouds moving in before we arrived. The rest of the tour consisted of sitting in their cafe watching a slide show of photos some of their astrophotographer's shot. I unfortunately considered this tour to be a waste of money.
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4.5/5
This is not really an observatory tour, as some reviews suggest, but organized star gazing from the hilltop of the Mt.
John Observatory (the research equipment is in unvisited buildings). As others note, they will cancel if the weather might interfere: if this is an important tour for you, allow some extra time in case of cancellation. We were up on a full moon (only window of time we had)--again, if important you might like to aim for a moonless (or crescent moon) night where the darkness of this area will be shown to best advantage. A guide points out some of the key features of the southern sky before all get to see a number of objects through a large domed scope and several smaller telescopes all manned by guides. An astrophotography setup is also available. This setup allows visitors to be looking through a telescope most of the time, so you don't have a lot of down time. For casual visitors and those from the northern hemisphere this is a fun tour. For advanced amateurs from the southern hemisphere this might be a bit thin, though the guides are pretty knowledgeable.
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5.0/5
Very interesting tour, smart and well known guide who showed us several objects and told us a lot about them.
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4.5/5
You do not pay in advance so with bad weather no tour or you get a discount.
Lots of information, beautiful sights of the sky, photographers onsite to help you take great pictures of the stars.
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4.5/5
A brilliant view/guided tour by people who really know what they are talking about.
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0.5/5
Travelled especially to Lake Tekapo for the observatory.
It was a beautiful clear night. We turned up for our 9pm tour to be told it was cancelled due to poor weather on the radar. They couldn't walk outside and see that it was a perfect night for star gazing. Don't waste your time going to visit as they might just cancel it on you for no apparent reason
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4.5/5
A hairy drive in the campervan up to the observatory but absolutely amazing views when at the top.
Nice (but expensive) cafe.
We're glad we branched off the road to see this.
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5.0/5
Great views of the lakes from this viewpoint.
You also get a real appreciation of how glaciers sculpted the landscape.
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4.0/5
Due to heavy winds, the tour was relocated to a smaller private observatory nearby.
E & S Tours showed flexibility, and they also charged less. The southern night sky was great, the tour was quite instructive, but a real beginner's one. I would have appreciated comments to be more scientific and less anecdotal.
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3.5/5
An interesting experience.
The number of people meant that we did not see and hear quite as much as we had hoped which left us feeling that it was not good value for money.
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5.0/5
Amazing Experience!
Great Customer Service. Picked up from our campsite and taken up to the Observatory. Very informative friendly staff, we throughly enjoyed the experience including taking photo's with our own camera. Very helpful showing us how to set it up.
We loved it so much we went back for a day tour. Would recommend.
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5.0/5
Went on the late night tour which we were offered at a reduced price as it was slightly cloudy.
Although the weather then miraculously cleared and we still got the full tour at the lower price - spectacular experience and great customer service.
