Observatory Radio Camera How It Works Early Access
Aurora Australis over a snow-capped mountain range under a star-filled sky
Tāhuna | Queenstown, NZ

AWE

Observatory · Radio · Camera

Never miss what's happening in the sky

Our AI vision system monitors the basin 24/7, evaluating celestial events and atmospheric beauty in real-time.

When a wonder is identified, a rich notification lands on your phone or watch with a live image and field notes. You choose which wonders to be woken for — and which can wait until morning.

Moonrise over The Remarkables· Lenticular Clouds· Aurora Australis· Noctilucent Clouds· Glacier Infrasound· Rob Roy Glacier· Moonrise over The Remarkables· Lenticular Clouds· Aurora Australis· Noctilucent Clouds· Glacier Infrasound· Rob Roy Glacier·
Green aurora pillars beneath a deep red sky over a dark mountain ridge, Queenstown

The Missing Signal

Often, the most awe-inspiring moments are the ones nobody sees

Lenticular clouds stack above the basin and dissolve before anyone notices. A full moon clears The Remarkables on a Tuesday evening with nobody watching. Noctilucent clouds glow on the edge of space for a few fleeting minutes.

These moments happen constantly — but they're easy to miss, and over by the time word spreads. AWE is the missing signal.

Three Ways In

Watch. Listen. Capture.

Three ways to find awe in Queenstown — each one tuned to a different sense, a different timescale, a different kind of wonder.

01

Awe Observatory

Watch the sky

An AI powered camera watches the sky over Queenstown 24/7 and alerts you the moment something extraordinary appears — an aurora, lenticular clouds, a moonrise clearing The Remarkables, noctilucent clouds at the edge of space.

Explore →
02

Awe Radio

Listen to ice

A live broadcast from the base of Rob Roy Glacier. Infrasound made audible — the deep, slow voice of ice that's been shifting for thousands of years. Tune in to fall asleep to a glacier.

Explore →
03

Awe Camera

Compress a year

A small circular pinhole camera. No battery, no screen. Mount it and forget it. After one year, you hold 365 days of light collapsed into a single, luminous image.

Explore →

01 — Awe Observatory

Four wonders at launch

We're starting with the four most extraordinary sky events over the Queenstown basin — the ones that stop people in their tracks.

Aurora Australis curtains over Coronet Peak
01

Aurora Australis

Queenstown sits at the same geomagnetic latitude as Aberdeen, Scotland — a world-class aurora hotspot most visitors don't know about. Live visual confirmation combined with solar wind data, not just Kp forecasts.

Lenticular clouds stacking above The Remarkables
02

Lenticular Clouds

Rare lens-shaped clouds that stack above the basin when winds hit the mountains just right. AI vision detects their formation in real time — before they dissolve.

Full moon rising over The Remarkables mountain range
03

Moonrise

Position-aware predictions tell you exactly when and where the moon will rise relative to The Remarkables from your location. Full moon alerts with optimal viewing scores.

Noctilucent clouds glowing at the edge of space during twilight
04

Noctilucent Clouds

Electric blue clouds glowing at the edge of space, visible only in deep twilight. Among the rarest atmospheric events — and one of the most beautiful.

Infrasound microphone at Rob Roy Glacier
Coming 2026

02 — Awe Radio

Tune into the Awe Broadcast

Rob Roy Glacier. Live.

Right now, ninety minutes from Queenstown, a 300-metre wall of ice is cracking, shifting, and calving into the valley below. You can't hear it. Nobody can. The sounds a glacier makes are infrasound — deep vibrations below 20 Hz, beneath the floor of human hearing. But they're there. Constantly.

A slow, geological voice.

AWE is developing infrasound sensors for the base of Rob Roy Glacier to capture those sub-audible signals and make them audible — then broadcast them live through the app. We're also seeking a commercial FM licence so you can tune in on your drive around the South Island, while working to secure DOC and iwi consent for installation near the glacier.

Tune in to hear ice thousands of years old as it shifts across the landscape.

The Awe Camera — a circular pinhole camera
Coming 2026

03 — Awe Camera

One Year. One Photo.

Awe is what happens when you encounter something so vast your mind has to expand to take it in. A mountain does it. An aurora does it. But so does a year — if you could see one.

The Awe Camera is a small circular disk, about the size of a clock. No battery. No screen. No app. Just a small hole and photographic paper. Mount it on your kitchen wall, your living room, or your garden. Then forget about it.

For twelve months, it quietly absorbs every season of light that passes through your home. Take it down after a year and what you'll hold is three hundred and sixty-five days collapsed into a single, luminous image.

Compressing time in service of awe.

How It Works

Never miss what's happening in the sky

A live webcam, an AI that sees beauty, and a notification system built for moments that don't wait.

Live Camera 24/7 panoramic webcam over Queenstown basin AI Vision Evaluates four wonders with confidence scoring Aurora Lenticular Moonrise Noctilucent Instant Alert Rich notification with live image & field notes IMAGE FEED WONDER DETECTED SOLAR WIND · GEOMAGNETIC DATA · LUNAR EPHEMERIS · WEATHER

Live Camera

A panoramic webcam watches the sky over the Queenstown basin 24/7, feeding images to our AI vision system.

AI Vision

Evaluates aurora, lenticular clouds, moonrise, and noctilucent clouds with confidence scoring and predictive modelling.

Instant Alert

A rich push notification with a live image and field notes lands on your phone. You choose which wonders to be woken for.

01

AI watches the sky

A panoramic webcam feeds into our AI vision system, combining live image analysis with solar wind and geomagnetic data — concentrating checks around the windows when moonrise, aurora, and rare cloud formations are most likely to appear.

02

Wonders are identified

Lenticular clouds forming over the basin. A full moon on track to clear the mountains. Noctilucent clouds glowing at twilight. An unexpected aurora. The AI evaluates all four simultaneously, with confidence scoring and predictive modelling.

03

You get alerted instantly

A rich push notification lands on your phone with a live image, a concise subject line, and a field note. You choose which wonders to be woken for — and which can wait until morning.

24/7 Live Monitoring· AI Computer Vision· Real-Time Alerts· Queenstown Basin, NZ

Enterprise

Bring AWE to your guests

Integrate real-time sky alerts into your guest experience via our API. In-room notifications, concierge activations, and curated viewing guides — all branded to your property.

Partner with AWE →
Aurora Australis over a snow-capped mountain range under a star-filled sky

Mission

AWE

Awe is how we come back to ourselves — more open, more curious, more connected to everything around us. It makes us kinder. It makes us braver. It reminds us we belong to something bigger than whatever's on our screen. We build tools that help people look up more often, listen more carefully, and stay open to the vast, strange beauty that's already out there. Because the more awe you let in, the more it changes you.