New Zealand's Southern Alps probably is one of the greatest places in the world to view the night sky, especially in early July each year, because during this period, every night, from 12:00am, the Milky Way centre would move down towards the west, which makes the stunning Milky Way become paralleling with the west faced mountain ridges.

After doing precise study, I decided to take this advantage and climb to some high place in Mount Aspiring.

Climbing to Liverpool Hut needs some effort - one has to first hike 8 km starting Aspiring Hut along West Matukituki Valley Track, then climb 1.2 km with 530 meters elevation gain, then hike another 2 km along the mountain ridge before reaching the hut. But the reward is tremendous: the grand view over the valley is just amazing.

I took this photograph at 1:40am on 7 July 2016, while the Milky Way centre had moved towards the west just above the mountain ridge. The tiny Liverpool Hut down the valley illustrated the scale of this giant mountain range. The far left side red light was from Wanaka downtown - 60 km away from Mount Aspiring.

This panorama image was a result of 8 successive shots stitching together showing a 180 degree wide view from left to right.