Balancing tourism opportunities while preserving the night sky

Preserving the natural beauty of the night sky in a tourist mecca like Queenstown is a very fine balance. Naturally tourism operators want to maximise the potential of their businesses by offering after dark pursuits.

But the district is governed by the Southern Light Strategy, which is aimed at minimising sky glow from lighting infrastructure in areas which could potentially be named as international dark  sky reserves (like the McKenzie region) - which would be another tourist attraction in itself.

So when Skyline Queenstown approached Boffa Miskell about doing an assessment for its night luge operation Megan Ash found herself in new territory. She was used to doing assessments for daytime activities, but not for something that’s only carried out in the dark.

Bright night lights shouldn’t contaminate the sky in Queenstown. Photo credit: Skyline Enterprises

“You’re trying to ensure you find a good balance between protecting the landscape and ensuring these tourism operators can develop their business,” Ash says.

“Queenstown is quite a special area with its mountain ranges, and a majority of the district is classified as an Outstanding Natural Landscape (ONL), Outstanding Natural Feature (ONF) or Visual Amenity Landscape (VAL) yet there is a high level of development occurring in the town. We have to ensure that that development is happening in areas where it can be absorbed by the landscape whilst protecting what makes the place so special.”

Tourist towns need to capitalise on visitors day and night. Photo credit: Skyline Enterprises

Which is why it’s vital that tourism operators engage landscape architects at the initial stages of their planning, she says. In the night lugging application her team made sure to liaise with the Queenstown Lakes District Council early on so there were no surprises, and concerns could be dealt with before the application went in.

The project meant working closely with lighting engineers Powell Fenwick who produced a model to demonstrate the different light spills and in-depth analysis around placement of the lights and use of colour only in areas where it would not be visible. There were also many night drives around the district to check light pollution from the site.

The addition of night lugging has been popular with tourists. Photo credit: Skyline Enterprises

And then of course it was necessary to actually try out the night lugging itself. Ash says she’s happy to report she was happy with the lighting and it was lots of fun - “cold, but definitely enjoyable.”