There are at present about fifty-three 1:50,000 or 1:75,000 topographic maps designed for walkers, trampers and other recreational map-users. To cover the whole of New Zealand would take about three hundred sheets. It is extremely unlikely that the Department of Conservation and commercial firms will produce recreational maps to cover the whole country. To fill the information gaps, the proposed government access agency might itself produce a national public-access map series.
This paper argues that we already have a state mapping body, Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), and that the government ought to adjust LINZ's mandate to require it to design and produce this public-access mapping. In particular, LINZ should design its planned new series of paper 1:50,000 topographic maps to meet the needs of walkers.
August 2006.
Recreational Map-users in New Zealand: The Haves and
the Have-nots (300 KB, twenty-one A4 pages).
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The Department of Lands and Survey published its first 1:50,000 topographic sheet in the NZMS 260 series in 1977 (sheet T12, Thames). Land Information New Zealand is now designing a new series of paper 1:50,000 maps, to be called NZTopo50.