A few years ago I visited Aoraki and aside from the planetarium the resort has a telescope which they set up at the airstrip, away from the lights at the resort area. Despite only having a compact with me I managed a couple of photos. Being able to not only see but photograph the zodiacal light in a 1 minute shot implies the sky was very, very dark indeed:
http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/73...-cook-airstrip
http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/73...k-by-moonlight
Three locations are particularly memorable for me:
The first was during the return of Halley's comet when (while visiting Whyalla) I had a perfect still night to go out into the Nullarbor to watch it rise over the desert. While it was spectacular I think there is an advantage to be had with altitude.
Then there is Mt Kaputar which is both remote and at 1500m above sea level, so it can give Bortle 1 skies and on a good night the visual limiting magnitude is the deepest I have ever seen, so much so you will just want to lie on the ground with binoculars and forget about telescopes for a while.A truly superb observing site IMHO and should be used more than it is.
Lastly, visiting Shangri-la in Yun-nan I was lucky enough to be up top of the cablecar at over 4000 metres one clear, fine evening. Bloody cold up there and the air is thin, you felt you were on the edge looking into deep space.