new zealand
astro + photography adventure workshop
new zealand
March 13 - 23, 2026
Join Derek Culver and award winning Kiwi photographer Tom Rae as we tour you around and teach you the art of night photography at the most inspiring locations across New Zealand! New Zealand is a premiere destination for night photographers and stargazers, as the Southern Hemisphere night sky catalog is filled with colorful Nebulae, huge Galaxies like the Magellanic Clouds, and stunning diamond like constellations that most of us do not have views of from the Northern Hemisphere. Pair these celestial objects with the amazing landscapes of New Zealand, and the potential to be creative is unlimited…
March is the best month for astrophotography in New Zealand: Southern Island emerges from its notoriously cloudy summer season into long clear nights with celestial objects dancing above all night! Along with our night photography trip centered around Mt Cook and Lake Tekapo on the South Island, what makes this the most unique and possibly best night photography trip available in New Zealand is our addition of capturing the Glow Worm caves and beaches on the North Island- these aren’t your average tours but custom designed tours that we worked closely with private farmers and tour outfits to design around photography! The bioluminescent glow worms are a once in a lifetime experience and like shooting night photography, but during the middle of the day! We pair this experience with luxury glamping accommodations at Wild Canvas in Waitomo and on the phenomenal beaches of the Coromandel Peninsula.
Our goal is to help you realize your creative potential, provide lessons to equip you with new creative techniques, guide you safely to world class night photography destinations, and send you home with amazing photos and unforgettable memories! Tom Rae will be one of the highlights of this trip, he is a young but incredibly gifted teacher with a serious talent for capturing the night sky; people end up loving his accent just as much as his passion for teaching others.
Photographers throw around the descriptive “Otherworldly”, New Zealand lives up to this! The Southern night skies are mind blowing!
logistics and lodging
We start on Friday March 13th in Christchurch, on the South Island of New Zealand. Travelling from the US it takes about a day to travel, then you automatically “lose a day” to the time zones. So ideally your flight out will be on March 11th, and you will arrive on March 13th in New Zealand.
We finish on Monday March 23rd in Auckland, on the North Island of New Zealand.
We take a short and easy flight midway through the trip from the South Island to the North Island; we help you book that! And can assist you every step of the way with booking tickets.
Once in New Zealand, we provide all transportation and lodging throughout the trip including pick up and drop off from the airports. Once you sign up the tickets between the South and North island are simple, and we will help you book them so we are all on the same flight or flying out at the same time out of Christchurch up to Auckland (South Island to North Island).
difficulty and group size
This astrophotography workshop is great for all levels of adventurers and photographers, and requires some modest hiking (hardest hike is 2 miles at Mt Cook and is optional) with camera gear on uneven surfaces at night and is best suited for astrophotographers who are ready to take their images to the next level and jump into tracking and panoramas.
We will cover astrophotography basics like single exposures, and build upon shooting and editing fundamentals as we get into tracking, stacking, panoramas, and combining exposures. Our small group size, 6 students to 2 teachers (some workshops have 12 students and only 2 teachers and call that small… crazy!) allows us to tailor lessons individually and give lots of 1on1 hands on instruction under the stars. We do quite a bit of editing throughout the trip and also provide custom editing videos.
technique highlights
High quality timelapses
Using a Star Tracker
Night sky panoramas
Blending multiple images together
location highlights
Mt Cook
Lake Tekapo
Castle Hill (pending permits)
Lake Pukaki
Coromandel Peninsula
Waitomo Glow Worms
Deep Space/Tracking right at Wild Canvas in Waitomo
workshop cost & payment terms
The tuition for this workshop is $7,500 total. A non-refundable deposit of $1,500 is required to reserve your spot with the remaining balance due 60 days before the workshop starts. Alumni, please reach out for a discount! Payment plan options are also available at check out.
itinerary
March 13
Meet in Christchurch, on the South Island of New Zealand! We pick you up at the airport, do an introduction, and head out to some epic rocks underneath the Southern Nights skies…
For the full itinerary or questions about this trip, please contact us in the form above or email adventures@blazingheavens.com
New zealand gallery
