International Space Station crew record rare video of a clear path over New Zealand

The snow-covered Southern Alps in a still from a video taken from the International Space Station. Photo / @ISSAboveyou

The crew of the International Space Station were treated to incredible views of Aotearoa New Zealand as the skies cleared to show off the Southern Alps freshly covered in snow.

A video lasting three minutes of the pass was posted to social media with the message "Kia ora Aotearoa New Zealand: Snowy views over Te Waipounamu / South Island leading to a super clear view of Te Ika-a-Māui / North Island over @Wellington_NZ and beyond. How was breakfast? Aug 1, 2022 8:30am NZST" on the @ISSAboveyou Twitter feed.

With what seems like months of constant rain a view like this hasn't been seen in a while. "It's been a while since the weather has allowed us to capture these lovely views," a thread in the post read.

The Southern Alps and Wellington as seen from the International Space Station. Photo / @ISSAbouveyou

One Twitter user replied "Pretty hilarious that one capture from the ISS goes from coast to coast, we're so skinny."

But, it turns out that yesterday's clear pass is one of the best on record.

"Actually, this is just about the longest pass we can ever get across the islands. If we have a pass from the west coast to the east coast that lasts about 30 seconds," @ISSAboveyou replied.

A satellite view of the whole country posted by the Met Service shows how cloud-free the skies over NZ were. The Met Service posted "A west to southwest flow brings clear skies to much of Aotearoa today, which makes it easy to view the fresh snow that has fallen on Tongariro National Park and the Southern Alps."

With cloud and rain forecast for much of the South Island this week it looks like the ISS crew got lucky indeed.

All that snow is nicely visible on this live video capture from the @Space_Station this morning. https://t.co/eEER1bq6wJ

— ISS Above (@ISSAboveYou) August 1, 2022