A strange breed of human, astrophotographers are known to race off from their homes into the mountains in the dead of night upon first hearing of snowfall.
Layering up, grabbing his gear, and grabbing a coffee on the way, Nick Faulkner from New Zealand drove the back roads in the dark through several country towns, passing thousands of sheep along the way, until he arrived at Castle Hill, situated in the heart of North Canterbury.
A self-professed “dark sky enthusiast,” Faulkner found himself in a lonely place dotted with hundreds of weathered limestone tors — huge, “squiggly” boulders — protruding from the earth. These would make an impressively photogenic supporting cast to compliment his main feature — the real stars of the show — the Milky Way galaxy in all her glory, a breathtaking stellar arc hanging in the night sky above, its galactic center the spectacle’s crown jewel. This was to be his picture….