The Last Starry Night

There have been amazing night skies for the most part of my stay in Great Barrier Island. The stars are so clear and beautiful and spread themselves right across the sky.
This is an image looking into my son's property, with a Phoenix Palm on the left and a Norfolk Pine on the right; they're framing the Milky Way beautifully.

I've had a wonderful holiday, in spite of coming down with a fairly heavy dose of the flu. It was a super day yesterday, with the 7 year old's birthday, swimming and surfing in the afternoon and then some astro photography later into the night. An excellent day! We started off with a swim this morning and were surprised by a little rip that took us out so quickly! A little swim across the current and then back to the beach fixed that problem.

I'm thankful that the flu has cleared sufficiently for me to fly back home today - am at Auckland Airport now, waiting for the flight to Christchurch.