Starlight reserves are a relatively new concept whose definition and management protocols have come about in an era when understandings of human relationships with nature are dynamic and infused with cultural meaning. Rather than assuming that pristine nature can be sealed off from human influences, World Heritage guidelines now accept that our experience of nature may be enriched by attention to the multifunctional landscape, in which a blend of aesthetic, historical, cultural, scientific and environmental elements are carefully presented to tourists. Observatories and clear night skies are ideal sites for such an interface, and the loss of dark skies has led to new systems of audit aimed at their preservation. This study of the potential for a World Heritage Site in the Mackenzie Basin, in the South Island of New Zealand, grounds the interaction between World Heritage goals and management of land use in a place where exceptional sky quality and competing land uses challenge multiple stakeholders to rethink their concepts of landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]