KEY POINTS:
Astronomers and conservationists are pushing for the air space above the Mackenzie Basin to be given a world-first heritage status as a "national park" in the sky.
Former Cabinet minister Margaret Austin will attend the Unesco meeting in Paris in January which will consider the bid to create a "starlight reserve".
The park-in-the-sky plan builds on a Starlight Reserve project to protect and control the amount of ambient light around Canterbury University's Mt John observatory near Tekapo.
Professor John Hearnshaw from the university told the Telegraph in London that it could establish the Tekapo region as a place to see stars so that not only would astro-tourism flourish, but the long-term viability of the Mt John site would be protected for astronomers.
Graeme Murray, director of Earth and Sky, which has exclusive tourist rights at the university's observatory, is backing the bid to establish a World Heritage Starlight Reserve in the Lake Tekapo and Aoraki Mt Cook area.
"We want to better protect one of the Mackenzie's most valuable assets, its dark, starry sky," he said. "It has never been done anywhere in the world".
A 2001 warning estimated the observatory could have to close its doors in 10 years because of light pollution from house and street lighting and the impending development of the tourist town below.
- NZPA
