From Radio New Zealand:

“Great South Southland Regional Development Agency has been working with the Fiordland community and stakeholders on the possibility of it becoming an accredited Dark Sky Park with the International Dark Sky Association (IDA).

“Great South expected it would extend the tourism season over winter when viewing is at its best, and spokesperson Amie Young said Fiordland already ticked most of the boxes with very little light pollution.

"If Fiordland National Park received IDA Park designation it would make it the second largest Dark Sky Park in the world, second only to Death Valley National Park in the USA," Brown said in a statement.”

This is where Fiordland is in New Zealand:

It’s one of the last basically pristine almost-wildernesses on Earth, all 12,600 square kilometres of it.

Much of it looks like this:

There’s a big flaw in these “stakeholder” arguments though:

“Work is already under way with hopes it would bring domestic and international visitors to the region.

“Fiordland Community Board chair Sarah Greaney was enthusiastic about the opportunity.

"We have amazing night skies here in Fiordland, completely unpolluted by light. The opportunity for us to become a Dark Skies Park opens up possibilities for businesses, photographers and many others to share this with the world, so it's very exciting to see this progressing," she said in a statement.”

Conclusion: It’s all about the money. It’s all about getting international tourists in planes from far away places to burn thousands of kilos of Co2 each to reach New Zealand in order to look at the stars.

Do these “stakeholders” listen to the contradictions in their own sentences from time to time? One gets the feeling they’re still not really being confronted by the fact that New Zealand has to de-international-tourist, going forward.

Next.