“Quite possibly one of the Planet’s best locations for a cafe” - The Lonely Planet

Situated on the shores of Lake Tekapo in the heart of Aoraki/Mt Cook, McKenzie International Dark Sky Reserve is Earth & Sky, a key astronomy facility offering stargazing night tours, food and beverages and retail outlets. Following a joint venture agreement between NgaiTahu Tourism and Earth & Sky, Wildfire was thrilled to be commissioned to design and fit out the Kitchen and Bar areas for this new multi-million dollar development now known as The Dark Sky Project.

The picturesque location provided unique challenges such as how to get all the equipment to site. Project manager, Andrew Cook said, “co-ordinating the services and installation was made a lot easier with the help of the great building team from Cook Brothers Construction”.

In the kitchen area of the Dark Sky diner, beneath AOM hoods, sits a gas operated cookline featuring premium products from the Waldorf range. Incorporated underneath stainless benching are TurboAir refrigeration units while, customer facing inline refrigerated display cabinets by FPG will help tempt the tastebuds of the 200,000 visitors expected over the next twelve months.