PHENOMENAL: An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this image with a Nikon D4 digital camera last month.

International Space Station astronauts seldom see New Zealand because, Nasa reveals, it's the part of the world that they are usually asleep over.

And, to rub it in, they add that New Zealand is one of the cloudiest parts of the planet.

The American space agency today released a high resolution and detailed picture of "sunglint" over the South Island and the lower half of the North.

Nasa A close-up of the image.

It was taken on January 24 in Nasa's time, or on Sunday, January 25 in New Zealand.

Nasa says the astronauts on the International Space Station looking west towards the setting sun were able to see this high-contrast detail even though the centre of the glint point was 1000 kilometres away.

The sunglint shows "Wellington Bay" opening into the Cook Strait and the Banks Peninsula, "whose characteristic shape is well known to ISS crews".

Clouds are coming in over the Tasman Sea.

"New Zealand is seldom photographed from orbit because it is one of the cloudier parts of planet, and because crew sleep periods often occur when the ISS passes over the area."

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