On Saturday 16th May a delegation from Kaikōura High School travelled up to Blenheim for the 2026 Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand (RASNZ) Conference.
Recount from the four Kaikōura High School students who attended:
After an early start from KHS, we arrived at the Scenic Marlborough Hotel around 9AM.
After a welcome by the Blenheim School Kapa Haka Group, we dove right into astronomy with one challenging but fascinating and eye-opening presentation after another, covering everything from mathematical models of the universe to observations of exocomets. The students took notes and tried valiantly to understand these astronomically complex ideas. One of our favorite presentations of the conference concluded the early morning session, Chris Benton’s lecture: The human heart and body fluids in space.
In the afternoon session, we attended several very inspirational talks from high school students enrolled in the Students With A Passion for Astronomy (SWAPA) programme. They talked about their work assisting astronomers with their research, creating their own computer programs for collaborative long-exposure astronomy, and on the reasons why they continue to be fascinated by astronomy and the importance of it in their own lives. At the end of the afternoon session, we had a surprise at afternoon tea with some delicious astronomy-themed gelato from Bocky Boo Gelato, a sweet way to conclude our conference experience.
We then loaded up in the school car, picked up some pizza on our way out of town, and karaoked our way back to Kaikōura. We arrived back to KHS and were greeted with clear skies and the very stars we had been discussing all day.
A big thank you to Kaikōura Dark Sky Trust, Omaka Observatory Trust, and the RATA foundation for sponsoring us and giving us this amazing opportunity.
Quotes from our intrepid astronomers:
“It was good! Parts of it were a bit confusing but I took a bunch of notes. I think students should have the opportunity to do things like this more in the future.” – Ruby Liberona Percy
“I really liked the presentation on exoplanets, and learning about how the human body changes in space.” – Kaitlyn Mukoke
“It was really great hearing from students our own age about their experiences with astronomy.” – Amber Hamilton
