Clear skies of the Mackenzie Country

HEAD TURNER: Church of the Good Shepherd, a delightful building crafted with lakeside stone.

We owe a lot to the alleged sheep stealer and folk hero James McKenzie. Aided by his cunning sheepdog, Friday, McKenzie is alleged to have stolen sheep from the Levels station near Timaru and driven them across a pass to the hinterland now called the Mackenzie Country (named to honour the Scottish-born shepherd, despite the variance in spelling). Following McKenzie's capture in 1855, run holders were quick to move in on this previously little-known territory.

The Mackenzie Country became a haven for merino sheep. These days it is better known for power pylons, incredibly clear skies, and worthy tourism including the Air Safaris Grand Traverse flight of Mount Cook and Westland national parks.

A central point is the expanding village of Tekapo, idyllically sited on the shores of a stunning lake known for its azure colour - the result of sunlight reflecting on glacier-ground rock flour suspended in the water.

The village is about halfway along the inland route from Christchurch to Queenstown, locating it as an ideal stopping place for travellers.

Mount John is the prominent landmark when approaching Tekapo from the west.

Clear skies over the Mackenzie has rendered Mount John one of the world's premier sights for stargazing and satellite tracking. Four telescopes are housed in distinctive curved dome structures on the 1031-metre summit. They date from 1936 when the Cook Astrograph, built by F J Fecker, was permanently installed. New Zealand's largest telescope is also on Mount John. It was locally designed but built in Nagoya, Japan, utilising a Russian-made 1.8-metre reflector. Commissioned in 2004, it is the world's largest telescope dedicated to microlensing observations.

The Mount John Observatory is a Canterbury University project, established in 1965 as a joint venture with the University of Pennsylvania. For a time the United States Air Force had an adjacent satellite tracking station to monitor US and Russian satellites, but this was subsequently incorporated into the local university's observatory programme. Over the years, Mount John has been held in some suspicion (owing to the US involvement), but these days the observatory is an open book, sporting a walkway, summit Astro cafe, and stargazing tour operators, including Earth and Sky. My companion and I discover Mount John is easily accessed in about 45 minutes via a Conservation Department track. From the township the track passes the YHA hostel, camping ground, and the recently-established Alpine spar offering Hanmer Springs-style hot pools. The 300m climb is quite steep but rewarding at the summit with expansive views to the mountains at the head of the lake, more than 20 kilometres away.

Close to the cafe we are invited into one of the telescope domes to view the Southern Cross pointer stars through the Earth and Sky primary instrument. We hear about the recent efforts to protect Mount John's starlight future by limiting and shielding the town's lighting, and aspirations for the Mackenzie region to become a Unesco World Heritage Starlight Reserve within two years.

We head down the track keen to slake our thirst at the Tekapo Tavern. Within the hour we are sipping cold ale and enjoying the late afternoon lake-level views. Low light on the small, distinctive Church of the Good Shepherd has us scurrying, with cameras, across the lake's outlet canal (supplying water for the Mackenzie electric power stations).

The angle of the sun highlights the church's intricate stone work.

Nearby is the bronze collie sheepdog monument. Often thought to represent McKenzie's infamous Friday, it is a memorial to all working dogs that made farming of the Mackenzie region possible.

- © Fairfax NZ News