Solar Explosion

During the time I was living in New Zealand, I was always looking for Aurora alerts. At the beginning of my adventure there, I was exploring the south island, where you can see the Aurora if there is a solar storm. It only happened once which was an unexpected one and I missed it. Then, I had to move to the north island for my studies.

After waiting about 1.5 years, my friends called me from the south island one day. They were telling me that a solar storm was coming. I took a day off and booked a last-minute flight. I rented a car in Queenstown, but the weather was not promising. After hours of checking the forecasts, we started driving and arrived at Lake Pukaki in Aoraki McKenzie Night Sky Reserve.

Once the sun set, we witnessed one of the best moments of our lives. It only was visible to the naked eye for 10mins, but our emotions were not be expressed by any words. The pink color in aurora occurs by nitrogen atoms, and I was able to capture it only in one photo that night.