Hotels in Dunedin, New Zealand are already fully booked for July 22, 2028, and the days around it. The reason: the city is preparing for its first total solar eclipse in more than 850 years. At 4:17 pm on that date, the Moon will pass in front of the Sun, casting a shadow band roughly 100 km wide across parts of southern New Zealand.
Every area within that path, from the tourist hub of Queenstown in the west to Dunedin in the east, will be plunged into daytime darkness for 2 minutes and 51 seconds. Even with two years still to go, hotels are already taking booking requests. The Dunedin Leisure Lodge has already sold out, having offered free eclipse-viewing glasses as part of its “eclipse package.”
Astronomer Ian Griffin, director of the Tūhura Otago Museum, told the Guardian the last solar eclipse visible from Dunedin happened in 1163, before humans had even reached New Zealand, making this the first time anyone from that part of the world will see one. It will also be the first total solar eclipse visible anywhere in New Zealand since 1965. Griffin said that if the weather cooperates, the roughly three minutes of darkness will be unforgettable for anyone who sees it.
On Wednesday, Dunedin’s museum kicked off a two-year countdown to what’s expected to be a major tourism event for the city: about 35,000 visitors are expected to descend on a city of just 130,000 residents. The eclipse falls in the middle of New Zealand’s winter, right after Matariki, the Māori New Year celebration tied to the star cluster known as the Pleiades, which disappears from the sky for a month each winter before reappearing around the winter solstice.
Dunedin is planning a night-sky festival running from Matariki through to the eclipse. Griffin called it a genuinely unique global event, pairing a cultural celebration of the night sky with a spectacular eclipse about ten days later. Dunedin mayor Sophie Barker told the Guardian that anticipation for the eclipse can be felt across the whole city.
