However, there are no guarantees Kiwis will be able to see it because the skies must be free of clouds.<\/p>\n
The Aurora Australis is lighting up New Zealand skies. Photo \/ George Heard<\/p>\n
Aurora Australis has graced our skies several times during the past year, leaving Kiwis in awe of the spectacular sight.<\/p>\n
In October last year, colourful lights dazzled South Island residents<\/a>.<\/p>\n In September, a passenger on a flight from Auckland to Christchurch captured the lights from her seat.<\/a><\/p>\n Auroras typically happen<\/a> when the magnetosphere is disrupted by solar wind that alters charged particle trajectories.<\/p>\n AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n The particles then rise into the upper atmosphere and create vibrant colours in the sky such as green, pink, purple and red.<\/p>\n The Northern Lights is the most famous aurora and occurs anywhere within a 2500km radius of the North Pole, making Norway and Iceland some of the best places to see it.<\/p>\n Sightings of the Aurora Australis can happen year-round but are most common during the equinoxes in March and September as the long, dark nights increase the odds of seeing the light.<\/p>\n Some of the best spots to see the Aurora Australis include Great Barrier Island<\/a> (which is a Dark Sky Sanctuary), Wairarapa Dark Sky Reserve<\/a>, Wai-iti International Dark Sky Park<\/a>, or on board a flight across the South Island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, there are no guarantees Kiwis will be able to see it because the skies must be free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3844],"tags":[23202,6306,63963,63967,63971,63964,4923,1428,63968,20635,22480,63969,3424,6985,70,63966,17947,63965,20573,413,63970,5598,6093,16,15,6095,9642],"class_list":{"0":"post-149393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-already","9":"tag-aurora","10":"tag-australis","11":"tag-begun","12":"tag-colours","13":"tag-dazzle","14":"tag-first","15":"tag-island","16":"tag-islanders","17":"tag-light","18":"tag-lights","19":"tag-marvelling","20":"tag-nz","21":"tag-residents","22":"tag-science","23":"tag-see","24":"tag-show","25":"tag-skies","26":"tag-south","27":"tag-space","28":"tag-striking","29":"tag-the","30":"tag-to","31":"tag-uk","32":"tag-united-kingdom","33":"tag-with","34":"tag-zealand"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114608021429324160","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Aurora Australis is lighting up New Zealand skies. Photo \/ George HeardWhat is the Aurora Australis?<\/p>\n
The Aurora Australis is lighting up New Zealand skies. Photo \/ George Heard<\/p>\n