Armed with phones and cameras, with some astrophotography experience or none at all, locals headed to beaches and high vantage points across the region to capture the solar storm.
Port Waikato resident Sarah Fitzpatrick said she found out about the phenomenon online.
“So my hubby, my son and I headed up to the beach at 7pm,” Fitzpatrick told the Waikato Herald.
“We could see a slight red tinge over the hill so I decided to try my luck with my phone. I’m pretty stoked I did.”
“On Saturday morning when I saw that all the conditions were lining up for the potential to see it from our area I searched for an area where I would have good south views away from light pollution and that’s how I found Te Toto Lookout, so we drove out there just before sunset and sat on the hill watching the show.”
Hobbyist photographer Paul Martin said he was in some groups for astrophotography in the South Island.
Now based in Hamilton, Martin’s experience shooting photos from Waipapa Dam both during the day and at night helped him capture a stunning image of the aurora in the sky above Waikato.
“I knew it was South and where to go.”
The aurora australis as seen from Port Waikato. Photo / Sarah Fitzpatrick
Auroras result from magnetosphere disruptions caused by solar wind, altering the trajectories of charged particles.
These particles then rise into the upper atmosphere, creating colourful displays.
The aurora australis or Southern Lights may still be visible tonight.
Hamilton resident Ricki Watson photographed the aurora australis from Te Toto Gorge, Raglan. Photo / Ricki Watson
MetService meteorologist Clare O’Connor said the event was an uncommon sight for New Zealanders, but more so for those in the far north.
“In New Zealand, we’re not that far south and the closer you are to the poles the easier they are to spot. We do see the stronger ones, but to see them from Northland, that’s very uncommon.”
More solar storms are expected tonight and over the coming weeks as a “solar maximum” approaches.
University of Otago physics professor Craig Rodger told Radio New Zealand it was the largest such solar storm for more than a decade in New Zealand, and astronomer Dr Ian Griffin said Aurora Australis should be visible again either Monday or Tuesday night.
“The solar storm that was raging over the weekend has died down a little bit now, but there is some more material coming from a sunspot which is turning away from the Earth,” Griffin told RNZ.
“But it has kind of sent a final goodbye by firing some more solar material towards us, and that should be arriving either tonight or tomorrow.”
While this particular sunspot would not be throwing anymore material into the atmosphere after Tuesday night, Griffin said a solar maximum - the peak of the solar cycle - was approaching.
Maryana Garcia is a Hamilton-based multimedia reporter covering breaking news in Waikato. She previously wrote for the Rotorua Daily Post and Bay of Plenty Times.
