It had been on my bucket list for years to capture a panorama of this
scene at Paikea Bay, a remote bay that can only be accessed from
Anawhata Beach at low tide. However, the location adds extra parameters
to an already complex list of factors that must line up in order for the
image to be successful: the tide must be low at the exact time that the
Milky Way is setting at the lowest point in the sky, and positioned so
that the iconic West Auckland monolith known as Keyhole Rock is somewhat
central beneath it’s arch. This only happens once a year, in June. The
available days are further limited to being within days of a new moon,
and on a cloudless night. The night all these aspects coalesced promised
almost 100% cloud cover to give way at the exact hour I needed to be in
position with my camera to capture this shot. I was not disappointed.
The resulting image consists of 3 rows of about 13 photos (40 in total),
stitched together in Photoshop.

On my long walk back across the rocks and up the steep bush to the car, I
was wondering what I could call this image and was reminded of a quote
from the bible which says, “He sits enthroned above the circle of the
earth … He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them
out.” (Isaiah 40:22). This became the inspiration for the title of this
image.