Aurora lights up the South Island

The South Island was treated to a spectacular Aurora Australis display Sunday night.

This display of the Southern Lights, as they're also known, measured seven on the Kp index, a measure of aurora activity. The maximum is nine.

On Sunday night, the lights were seen as far north as Motueka at the top of the South Island - roughly in line with Wellington.

(Ashley Harvey)
(Gregg Painter)
The view from Dunedin (Bindi Leech)
Motueka's skies (Christian Mairoll)
Scroggs Hill, looking south (Michele Newman)

An aurora is a light display in the sky, produced when high energy particles from solar wind or the sun hit the atmosphere, creating lights of different colours.

(Emma Fehon/@completelywanderlust on Instagram)
Motueka (Christain Mairoll)

Some took to Twitter to show off the view where they were.

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