If you had to get in a fight to edit that, it really is the height of wikipedianism.

I can totally see how this kind of question would intersect with climate activism though.

I didn't really have to fight to edit it, but it had been in the article for many years, despite being blatantly false (tundras have mean temperatures below 0 C for 6+ months out of the year, while coastal Southland has a mean temperature of 5 C in July, the coldest month). My best guess is some kid thought that Southland was cold and knew that tundras were cold, and added a sentence to the article comparing Southland to a tundra.

Whenever I catch something like this, I wonder how many things like this are in there that I don't notice. And this one isn't even really touching anything that is controversial.

It is probably a reference to upland areas of Southland. Some of those do qualify as tundra although most of it is forested.

It specifically said coastal southland before I edited it, it would've worked to change it from "tundra like climate in coastal southland" to "tundra like climate in apline regions of the south island" instead, you're right.

I think the Southland reference is to upland areas. Invercargill itself is temperate (but often cold) and has a lot of trees, as does Stewart Island to the south. I've camped in both places.