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New Zealand Geocaching Holiday - Maps

Posted: 28 September 08 10:40 am
by DnA!
We are going to NZ in December 2008 for a couple of weeks and would like to do some geocaching while we are there. We use a TomTom for geocaching in Australia. We can't justify the cost of purchasing NZ maps for 3 or 4 days of caching.
We are looking for any suggestions for how we can geocache in NZ without spending a lot of money on maps. We have our TomTom and a laptop computer (without mobile internet access). We are contemplating purchasing a GPSr for Australian use but have no idea what to get. If we could get a GPSr with reasonably priced overseas maps available we would consider that.
Any advice would be much appreciated.

Posted: 28 September 08 11:17 am
by rhinogeo
Buy a Garmin and not only will you have a superior GPSr but you will be able to use the free New Zealand Open GPS Maps Project for Garmin Mapping GPS maps :wink:

Posted: 28 September 08 4:26 pm
by CraigRat
I'm going to NZ tomorrow, and I've built up a good set of maps using gMapMaker to use in OziExplorer which runs on the lappy (and the Navman in my case).

I am having trouble creating maps using the Google Maps settings, however if you select Microsoft Maps it does a pretty good job.

Posted: 29 September 08 7:19 am
by Map Monkey
Rhinogeo +1 :P

Nothing like using free routable maps on your Garmin GPS....about the only thing that is better about NZ. :twisted: :roll: :lol:

mm

Posted: 27 May 09 10:54 pm
by Richary
CraigRat wrote:I'm going to NZ tomorrow, and I've built up a good set of maps using gMapMaker to use in OziExplorer which runs on the lappy (and the Navman in my case).
<p>Hi Craigrat<p>I am off to Wellington in September for a week. Am I better off manipulating these myself if it's not too hard or begging you for a CD :D :D :D

Posted: 28 May 09 7:46 am
by CraigRat
richary wrote:
CraigRat wrote:I'm going to NZ tomorrow, and I've built up a good set of maps using gMapMaker to use in OziExplorer which runs on the lappy (and the Navman in my case).
<p>Hi Craigrat<p>I am off to Wellington in September for a week. Am I better off manipulating these myself if it's not too hard or begging you for a CD :D :D :D
Load the program, set the zoom level and you'll have a Ozi map in about 5 minutes, it's all automatic!

I didn't do the Wellington area, I don't think I built a map further south than Rotorua. I also don't think I kept the maps.

Just use google earth to work out the top left, bottom right co-ordinates of each map you want to make.

Posted: 28 May 09 12:14 pm
by Richary
Thanks, will have a play with it over the next few days. Got plenty of time anyway.

Posted: 28 May 09 9:18 pm
by Richary
Hmmm, any suggestions on how to make it work? I have tried both the area of NZ I am interested in as well as a small local area.

Setting it to driving maps only it goes and retrieves a lot of info and I end up with a blank white map. Setting it to satellite just times out trying to retrieve the data from google (even using the free proxy thing).

CraigRat - how the heck do I set it to use Microsoft maps? Documentation on the web page is basically non existent and I can't find that as an option.

Posted: 29 May 09 5:12 am
by CraigRat
richary wrote:Hmmm, any suggestions on how to make it work? I have tried both the area of NZ I am interested in as well as a small local area.

Setting it to driving maps only it goes and retrieves a lot of info and I end up with a blank white map. Setting it to satellite just times out trying to retrieve the data from google (even using the free proxy thing).

CraigRat - how the heck do I set it to use Microsoft maps? Documentation on the web page is basically non existent and I can't find that as an option.
You can't get Google Maps, they seem to have that blocked pretty well.
Last time I used it I just picked MSN Maps as the map source and it worked.

Don't have a Windows machine in the house right now to be able to look at it, I'll have a look when I get to the office (if the IT goons haven't blocked THAT as well..)

Posted: 29 May 09 2:11 pm
by Papa Bear_Left
If you haven't already, it's worth a look at the forums on gps.org.nz and, if your question hasn't already been answered, asking the locals!

The Kiwis are fortunate in that their main land-use body makes all their data freely available. So amateur map-makers have the source data and can work on refinements.

Fancy that, a government department making publicly funded information available to the public!

Posted: 29 May 09 11:36 pm
by Richary
Last time I looked the gps.org.nz forums were down, be worth checking again when I get the time though.

Posted: 14 June 09 1:00 am
by Richary
I've been asking and all I get is that OziExplorer isn't used in NZ because of the other tools available. Heck, all I want is a decent georeferenced map of Wellington and surrounds.

Have tried the links they have posted me to generate maps but no luck there getting anything useful. As data access costs are silly travelling overseas I think I will be back to the old days. A printed image (at least from google earth nowadays) and the arrow.

Posted: 14 June 09 9:55 am
by Map Monkey
Before going to NZ last year, i was after the same mapping requirements. After some searching, and finding that other packages eg. memory-map topo nz etc was waaaay too expensive ($299) for the short time we were going there, the closest product i came across was the Hema CD map New Zealand (<$30) which contains OZF2 and ECW images.

Image

Though i don't think hema makes it anymore :cry: , and due to a last minute rush, didn't end up purchasing it and used the free Garmin-compatible routable maps instead. :wink: Might be worth a net search for this product or asking around on some NZ forums for someone who has this product.

hope that helps.

mm

Posted: 14 June 09 10:13 am
by CraigRat
Map Monkey wrote:Before going to NZ last year, i was after the same mapping requirements. After some searching, and finding that other packages eg. memory-map topo nz etc was waaaay too expensive ($299) for the short time we were going there, the closest product i came across was the Hema CD map New Zealand (<$30) which contains OZF2 and ECW images.

Image

Though i don't think hema makes it anymore :cry: , and due to a last minute rush, didn't end up purchasing it and used the free Garmin-compatible routable maps instead. :wink: Might be worth a net search for this product or asking around on some NZ forums for someone who has this product.

hope that helps.

mm
These maps are at about 250k scale, good for general touring between cities, but have no real detail in city areas

Posted: 14 June 09 10:27 am
by Map Monkey
oh. :oops: glad i didn't buy them then. :lol:

mm