Windy Tops

Tag: maps

  • LINZ seeking feedback on Topo Map Production

    New Zealand has a great official mapping system in place, thanks to Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) having a mandate to produce and maintain consistent, national topographic mapping. Since 2009, this mandate has materialised in the Topo50 and Topo250 map series’, respectively 1:50000 and 1:250000 scale maps. Topo50 maps, in particular, are frequently used for tramping.

    As of Tuesday, however, LINZ is seeking feedback on the future production and prices of paper maps.
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  • Browsing Historic Topo Maps with MapsPast

    If you like topo maps, and especially trawling through historic topo maps of New Zealand, then check out the new MapsPast website, thrown together by Matt Briggs.

    Maps are great. For me, looking at maps and understanding what’s around is a fundamental aspect of tramping and getting outdoors to explore. Maps change over time, though. Whilst terrain doesn’t change rapidly, representation of features on maps often do. Locations of huts, campsites, tracks and common routes is often a fluid thing, and so looking at older maps can open windows to the past.

    In New Zealand we’re very fortunate that good quality survey information is surveyed, produced and made freely and easily available by the government, most recently handled by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ). The current flagship map series that’s most popular in tramping circles is the 1:50000 Topo50 series, which replaced NZMS260 a few years ago. But as new series’ and new editions of series’ are published, historic information can sometimes become obscured or lost.
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  • NZMS 260 and 262: Our Metric Topographical Heritage, edited by Graeme Jupp (review)

    Topographic maps worldwide often appear utilitarian, if not a little boring graphically. By comparison the new 260s were stylish and modern without losing any utility. They were undoubtedly among the best looking topographic maps in the world.

    —David Balm, In Order to Make a Good Impression: Printing 260 series topographic maps, 1976-1984, (reproduced in the book being reviewed)

    Cover image of NZMS 260 and 262: Our Metric Topographical Heritage, edited by Graeme Jupp

    This is a review of Graeme Jupp’s recently published booklet, titled “NZMS 260 and 262: Our Metric Topographical Heritage”, which was published in February 2011 as part of the CartoPRESS series by the New Zealand Cartographic Society. I’m not giving a complete qualified review, because I’m neither a cartographer nor am I very familiar with much of the history the material to comment on accuracy. It’s more of a perspective from someone who’s enjoyed using New Zealand’s topo maps over the last few years from a tramping perspective. If anyone notices mistakes in some of my comments to do with mapping history or technical issues, please feel welcome to correct me in the comments below. An alternative review by Shaun Barnett has been published in FMC Bulletin 184 from June 2011 (see here for a download link), which has been republished by the NZ Cartographic Society.

    If you’ve spent any of the last several decades using New Zealand’s official topo maps to plan interesting trips, you might find a moment to turn an eye to a short collation of recent cartographic history. This book combines a history with a comprehensive tabular appendix of maps. The combination of the history and the tables means it will make a handy reference item to have on the shelf for many people with an interest.

    The 260 and 262 map series are now obsolete, having respectively been replaced by the Topo50 and Topo250 series as of September 2009, but until that time they became extremely popular, and many are still in circulation today. As concluded by the editor, more than 2.8 million maps of the 260 series, and a further 408,000 maps in the 262 series (which shared the same geodetic datum but was drawn to a different scale) were printed between 1978 and 2009. Production of the 260 and 262 series provided a platform, and also established techniques and technologies upon which New Zealand’s topographic map-making continues to be built. The influence of this period of time in the production of maps in New Zealand seems hard to argue with.
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  • Commemorative feature naming and South Ridge

    I’m not too surprised that there’s reported resistance to renaming South Ridge on Aoraki Mount Cook to be Hillary Ridge. The official proposal and request for submissions by the New Zealand Geographic Board, complete with a report of considerations and policies on applying names, is viewable here.

    Ed Hillary did some awesome things, both in mountaineering and outside it. He held some strong viewpoints and didn’t hit it off with everyone, but he did much more with his life and influence than simply be in the first climbing team to reach the top of Everest. I think there’s little doubt that many people are much better off than they’d probably otherwise be. As for the naming of a feature after him, I’m not so sure.
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  • A quick reference online New Zealand topo-map

    If you’re sitting in front of a computer right now (very likely) and just want to zoom around New Zealand’s topo maps, you could check out Gavin Harris’s New Zealand Topographic Map website.

    Gavin’s stitched together all of the current Topo50 maps from Land Information New Zealand, into a big giant topo map of New Zealand. It’s now available through a handy zoomable and scrollable web browser interface similar to a simplified Google Maps but instead with good topo maps of New Zealand. It’s very handy for quick reference of what’s in an area without having to pull out big paper maps, and it’s easy to send around links to specific areas on the map. For instance, here’s the area around the Holdsworth/Jumbo Loop which is one of the most popular weekend tramps in the Tararuas.

    Gavin’s website follows the LINZ removal of it’s NZ Topo Online service, which it no longer considered necessary now that it’s providing downloads of all its Topo maps in various static formats.

    Update, 30th August: Coincidentally launched at about the same time, there’s now also another very similar service called NZ Topographic Maps that’s just been made available, by Reuben Williams of Seagull Web Design. The latter service utilises Google Maps, and paints NZ Topographic maps over the top.

  • Topo50 anomolies

    The last couple of days has seen some unusual news whereby the chief guide of the Manawatu Tramping and Skiing Club has been pointing out that some of the new Topo50 maps are wrong, following a trip they had in the Ruahines. In particular, the maps included incorrectly marked or missing tracks, and such.

    The story was first penned in The Manawatu Standard, and it’s since been picked up by Morning Report on National Radio (streaming available in your choice of [Windows Media Player], [MP3] or [Ogg Vorbis] depending on your preference).

    I don’t know what the errors are, and perhaps they’re especially bad. On the other hand, I wonder if the fact that the Topo50 series maps have errors means that they’re any worse than the 260 series. It’s hard to tell for sure without more information. It’s in everyone’s interests to have maps that are correct, but it’s common for NZ topo maps to have errors here and there, and sometimes it’s just necessary to accept this. The only way to really be sure about a region, short of asking someone trustworthy or going out with them, is to be prepared for anything, look at the landscape, be in a frame of mind to change plans if necessary and then learn about an area from experience.
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  • Topo50 map boundaries and Wellington

    This post is my attempt to make sense of where the significant boundaries lie in the replacement 1:50000 Topo50 map series pushed out by Land Information New Zealand last September to replace the old 260 series. I can’t guarantee how much if it will be useful, but as always comments, feedback and experienced elaboration are welcome.

    A couple of weeks ago, I took part in a bulk order of the new Topo50 maps, which replace the old 260 series that’s been in publication for several decades until now. I’m now the owner of 18 Topo50 maps to get me started, having picked up most of them for $3.50 each, around half the usual retail price. You can get this price (which includes GST but not postage) if you have a bulk order or 20 or more maps direct from LINZ, which makes it useful for clubs or groups of friends who know in advance what they want. I wrote about these maps last year, including more detail about why it’s actually happening and what the main changes are. The new maps have a couple of obvious differences:
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  • New Topo50 and Topo250 Maps for New Zealand

    If you stay informed about maps, you may already know that Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) will be officially changing New Zealand’s Mapping System in September 2009. There will be several obvious changes for people who use LINZ maps for navigation, one of which is that New Zealand’s map grid will change. This is a consequence of the Geodetic Datum (from which latitudes and longitudes are derived and on which the entire maps are based) having been changed several years ago, and LINZ is finally updating its maps to catch up with its techniques. When this happens, LINZ also intends to make a collection of other substantial changes to how maps are produced, how they look, and how they’ll be used. Most obviously for people into tramping, the well known NZMS260 series (1:50000 scale) and the NZMS262 series (1:250000 scale) of maps will be completely withdrawn from publication, and respectively replaced by two new series’ of maps called Topo50 and Topo250.

    LINZ has a large section of their website which describes the project in detail, explaining how it will affect people’s use of maps, GPS devices and other related systems. It’s good to see this actually happening — we’ve been hearing about it for several years now.

    Everything you need to know is behind the link above, but I thought I might try to summarise the changes, perhaps to help people understand it better but as much to help myself to get a grasp on what’s changing and why. I’m doing my best to get this as correct as I can, but please keep in mind that I’m an amateur at this. If you notice inaccuracies or omissions, I’d appreciate it if you could point them out by posting a comment. If necessary, I’ll correct the post and credit as appropriate. Meanwhile if you’re keen to get more authoritative information from the source, a good place to start is the LINZ Publications & Other Resources page. The downloadable Topo50 map Reading Guide and the Where in the World Are We? booklets are especially helpful, and much of what I’ve written here is really just a dumbed down version of them.
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