Pen-y-bryn Lodge

22/07/2026

Each image is about two hours of exposure through my imaging telescope — and while that one stays busy with the camera attached, guests are welcome to something even better for looking: on clear nights we set up our 10-inch Dobsonian, which gathers half again as much light and turns these clusters into swarms of stars you can see with your own eye. The southern sky is one of the Waitaki's quiet treasures — on a moonless night here, you can see the Milky Way from horizon to horizon.Midwinter is prime season for stargazing here in Oamaru — the nights are long and properly dark — and this past week of clear skies let me point the telescope at four of my favourite star clusters. All were captured over the last few nights, right here in the Waitaki's dark skies.

The big misty ball is Omega Centauri, the largest star cluster in the entire sky: around ten million stars, and it passes almost directly overhead here. Astronomers believe it's actually the surviving heart of a small galaxy our Milky Way swallowed long ago. The two golden swarms are M22 and M4 — M4 is the closest cluster of its kind to Earth, and is home to a planet nearly 13 billion years old, one of the oldest known. And the sparkly one is the Jewel Box, a young cluster in the Southern Cross — blue-white diamonds with a single ruby-orange star set in the middle.

17/07/2026

Kaitiakitanga — the world's most beautiful word 🌿

We were delighted to learn that te reo Māori has just received wonderful international recognition: an international jury of linguists, writers and cultural experts, convened by language-learning app Babbel, has named Kaitiakitanga the most beautiful word in the world — chosen from over 220 words across 75 languages.
Kaitiakitanga speaks of guardianship: the responsibility to care for and protect the natural world, not for ourselves, but for the generations who follow.
It's a concept close to our hearts here at Pen-y-bryn Lodge. From tending our heritage gardens and century-old trees, to supporting the protection of the little blue penguins that call Oamaru home, we try to be good kaitiaki of this special corner of Aotearoa — caring for a place that was here long before us, and will remain long after.
Ka mau te wehi — how fitting that of all the world's words, this is the one. 💙

A Māori word describing the responsibility to care for the natural world has been named the world's most beautiful word by language-learning platform Babbel.

16/07/2026

In Oamaru we don't get snow or even much in the way of frosts, but the same cannot be said for the Mackenzie Country a 90-minute drive away. Earlier this week the conditions up there seemed promising for a good hoarfrost to appear, so I headed up that way to shoot some photos. I was not disappointed!

08/07/2026

This bubble of glowing gas in the constellation Carina was sculpted by the fierce radiation of the young star cluster you can see blazing at its heart. The red shell surrounding it is hydrogen gas that has been ionised — stripped of its electrons — by that same radiation.

It's part of the vast Carina star-forming complex, one of the most active regions of star birth in our galaxy, and it sits high in our summer sky. Named after the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, who was born near a region of similar southern skies.

Photographed from our garden at Pen-y-bryn Lodge, Oamaru.

06/07/2026

The large blue-green nebula on the right is the Lagoon Nebula — one of only two emission nebulae visible to the naked eye from the southern hemisphere. The smaller orange object at lower left is the Trifid Nebula, which we posted about recently. They sit close together in Sagittarius and fit in the same wide-field image.

Both are active star-forming regions — clouds of gas and dust where new stars are being born right now. The Lagoon is around 4,000 light-years away and contains a young star cluster at its glowing heart.

On a clear winter evening from Pen-y-bryn these two nebulae are well placed in the northern sky. Through our 10-inch telescope the Lagoon shows remarkable structure and the Trifid's three-lobed division is clearly visible.

Photographed from our garden in Oamaru.

01/07/2026

More exciting gustatory news to share today!

🥃 From 3 July, our friends at The New Zealand Whisky Collection open the doors to their brand-new tasting room at 4 Wansbeck Street, Oamaru (across the road from the big building with "WHISKY" written across the façade, and more or less opposite Scotts Brewing Co).

We've long been proud supporters of theirs — so proud, in fact, that we had them fill a barrel with their spirit to create a private-label whisky just for Pen-y-bryn guests. Two batches, made exclusively for us, poured by the fire for those who stay.
Come taste it here, then head into town to see their new space for yourself, taste their whiskies and maybe get some bottles to take home or give as gifts. Two more great reasons to visit Oamaru this winter.

30/06/2026

Big news for New Zealand food lovers: Michelin has published its very first New Zealand guide, recognising 110 restaurants across the country — 15 of which received stars. It's also Michelin's first ever venture into Oceania, which feels like a genuine milestone.
Seven of the starred restaurants are on the South Island, including several we regularly recommend to our guests. We've written about what the guide means and how to plan a trip around it — see the link below.
And of course, we'd love to welcome you at Pen-y-bryn while you're exploring the region. 🍽️

Pen-y-bryn is North Otago's original luxury lodge, housed in an historic mansion, offering the finest in service and gourmet cuisine.

29/06/2026

The orange half of this image is an emission nebula — hydrogen gas glowing because it's being energised by a young star at its centre. The blue half on the left is a reflection nebula — a completely different cloud of dust reflecting the light of nearby stars.

Two entirely different phenomena, side by side in the same eyepiece. The dark lanes dividing the orange lobe give the Trifid its name — trifid meaning three-lobed.

This is a winter object from Oamaru, visible through our telescope on clear June and July evenings.

Photographed from Pen-y-bryn Lodge.

24/06/2026

That orange glow at the centre is a stellar nursery — a cloud of gas and dust where new stars are being born. The dark tendrils sweeping across the frame are dense dust clouds so thick they block the light of everything behind them. At the top right, the golden haze is the edge of the Milky Way itself.

The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is one of the closest star-forming regions to Earth, only about 400 light-years away. On a winter night from Pen-y-bryn it sits high overhead — a remarkable object even to the naked eye once you know what you're looking at.

Photographed from our garden in Oamaru.

17/06/2026

This is not a cloud. It's a galaxy — our nearest large neighbour in space, 160,000 light-years away, visible to the naked eye from Pen-y-bryn on clear nights.

Guests who have spent a lifetime stargazing in the northern hemisphere have never seen this. You can't — it never rises above the horizon north of about 20°N latitude. From Oamaru it's simply there, hanging in the southern sky.

We've just published a complete stargazing guide for Pen-y-bryn — ten targets for every month of the year, with a moon phase calendar to help you plan. Link in comments.

Photographed from our garden. You can photograph it too during a stay with us. https://www.penybryn.co.nz/activities/stargazing-at-pen-y-bryn-lodge/