Wairarapa Dark Sky Reserve

The Wairarapa Dark Sky Reserve is an International Dark Sky Reserve in the Wairarapa region in the southern part of the North Island of New Zealand. The reserve was designated by DarkSky International in January 2023. It was the second dark sky reserve to be certified in New Zealand (after the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve was recognised in 2012). The area covered by the reserve is 3,665 km2 (1, 415 sq mi) and includes the Aorangi Forest Park, and the South Wairarapa and Carterton Districts. The reserve is certified as an International Dark Sky Reserve, requiring a dark "core" zone that is surrounded by a populated area where policy controls protect the darkness of the core. For the Wairarapa reserve, the dark core is the entire area of the Aorangi Forest Park in the south of the reserve. All measurements of night sky luminance in the core area are darker than 21.3 mag/arcsec2 (corresponding to Bortle scale 3), and in places are as dark as 21.8 mag/arcsec2 (Bortle scale 1). Large parts of the Wairarapa region outside the core of the reserve exceed the minimum value of 21.2 mag/arcsec2 required for the core. Measurements taken in the town of Martinborough show that although it is located in the periphery of the reserve, it almost meets the minimum requirements for the core.

NatureReserve data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).