Dart: Destruction plans for paradise - or an exaggeration?

Dart: Destruction plans for Paradise

There is a place in New Zealand called Paradise. It is located north of the end of the world, in the endless virgin forests past Glenorchy, the last township on Lake Wakatipu. Narrow unsealed roads lead to the access points of some of the famous Great Walks of New Zealand, like the Routeburn Track. The few people in Glenorchy lead quiet and laid-back lives, far away from the noise of busy Queenstown. Tourists travel to and past Glenorchy exactly for this peace and quiet which they usually have to share with the zillions of sandflies only. You can hear the sounds of nature and silence there. Endangered wildlife like kiwi, kea and the takahe live in this remote region which is so isolated that parts of the Lord of the Rings trilogy were filmed there. And now a consortium named Milford Dart Limited wants to turn the scenic road between Queenstown and Glenorchy and the unsealed routes through the forests past the last inhabited place into a highway for tourist buses, filled with travellers who according to those great thinkers cannot spare four hours of their lives to drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound on the existing roads via Te Anau, and build a carpark in the middle of nowhere in Mt. Aspiring National Park. http://ecocrap.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/here-there-be-paradise/ http://www.sissistein.com/welcome/clean-and-green-new-zealand/tunnel-vision http://www.odt.co.nz/news/queenstown-lakes/212670/thousands-protest-tunnel Department of Conservation approves the scheme: http://www.3news.co.nz/DOC-approves-Milford-Dart-Tunnel/tabid/423/articleID/232451/Default.aspx http://www.3news.co.nz/DOC-approves-Milford-Dart-Tunnel/tabid/309/articleID/232451/Default.aspx    View video here: Ecospree