New Zealand Open GPS Maps Project

for Garmin Mapping GPS

About The New Zealand Open GPS Maps Project

Synopsis: Free street and road maps of New Zealand for Garmin mapping GPS. The street maps cover the whole of New Zealand with just about every road and street named in the country (except the Chatham Islands). These maps are free - do not pay for them - there are scumbag Ebay traders who sell them - they are ripping off our community by making money off our hard work.

Announcement:
NZ Open GPS maps - Autorouting is now available

NZ Open GPS Map Project Forums

Street Searching
Auto-Routing
A rich set of POI from Zenbu.co.nz

NZ Open GPS Map Project Forums

The maps will remain 100% free, owned by the community

This is a project to create (and hopefully inspire) an 'open' series of maps for mapping Garmin GPS (Legend, Vista, 60C, 76C etc... See here for Garmin Mapping GPS models). The imported 'grey market' GPS usually have the USA basemap which is good if you live in the States, but pretty ugly for us Kiwis - NZ is an angular blob with most of Auckland in the water.

The maps are pretty easy to make, the data and tools required are fairly accessable.

Please read the FAQ. There are step-by-step instructions for loading the maps using MapSource or SendMap
The legacy maps do not support 'auto-routing', or 'find address' or 'find intersection' (i.e. you cannot search for street names). If you want autorouting and street searching, the Autorouting maps must be used.
If you use these maps in any way (including any TradeMe GPS sellers who pre-load or provide the maps for free on CD), please give "NZ Open GPS Maps Project" credit, and I'd also appreciate some feedback and which model of GPS you have so I can build up a list of hardware these maps work with: Contact
You do not need a copy of Garmin's MapSource software in order to make and / or use these maps on your GPS. Loading can be done using img2gps and sendmap.
For licencing details of the legacy maps, please see here
All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
There are many other maps from other map authors available online - check out http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/ including some maps I've done for other places.


From fugly Garmin world basemap	To a proper coastline	With some good detail	Streets with lakes and rivers


Detail from the Waikato Region Touring Map showing the mythical Wardville.	Detail from the Auckland Region Street Map showing 'Spaghetti Junction'	Detail from the Dunedin Region Street Map	Screen shot from a 60C - yes these maps work in colour as well :-) Thanks to Aaron for the colour shots.

Download Legacy New Zealand Open GPS Maps Project IMG files (and yes - these map files are free!)

Note that these are the legacy versions - the autorouting maps are available here

Note that all the maps you intend to use must be uploaded at the same time, as any existing maps (excluding the basemaps held in ROM) are overwritten. All of the Basic map set takes up < 8mb of memory, so a full set of New Zealand maps can fit on a Garmin Legend without any problems. The Extended set is intended for Garmin GPS with more than 8mb of memory - these extended maps have the word 'Extended' in the title when you load them into SendMap / Img2GPS. Do not try to upload more maps than will fit in your GPS - it won't work and no maps will show.

Basic and Extended Maps - Complete Download Set - MapSource Compatible

Last modified

File size

Basic and Extended Map Set for MapSource - a complete download set and installer. The use of a download manager is highly recomended!

13 July 06

7.3mb

Step by step instructions for loading these maps with MapSource

Step by step instructions for loading these maps with SendMap

Last modified

File size

GPX files

NZ DOC huts locations

7 July 05

31kb

South Island Petrol Station GPX file - contributed by KiwiLegend

This list is for personal use only. Commercial use or derivative works only with permission from the Author.

This list covers 90-odd% of Canterbury, Nelson, Marlborough. It has some of Dunedin, and very little of the West Coast or Southland.
In exchange for your use of this list, I would appreciate notification of any errors, omissions, closures, etc. ( or even just a 'thanks' email )
I only have a few Wellington and Auckland stations.
Feel free to send me others from the NI, and I will collect and distribute them.

legend.kiwi@gmail.com

Download the Petrol Station GPX File

Contributed Maps

South Island coastline (4)

(1) These maps are effectively a 3.0 release. Based on Corax data and recompiled for faster screen re-drawing. The road and street names have been abbreviated for clearer display - e.g. "Queen Street" is now shown as "Queen St" which has really reduced on-screen clutter. Huge thanks to Kim Ollivier from Ollivier & Co for help with these maps.

(2) These highway maps have been updated using the latest files from Transit / Beca. They have been compiled at a high resolution and should be fast re-drawing.

(3) The POI for huts may be inaccurate - the LINZ data may be out by many meters. Always obtain the latest information from DOC http://www.doc.govt.nz/explore/index.asp

(4) The South Island coastline has been kindly contributed by Gary (aka 'KiwiLegend' on the NZGPS Forums). This is a substantial piece of work - creating 'proper' ocean polygons is not a quick and easy process, but the end results are worthwhile.

Map Coverage to date:

All of NZ is complete with all roads and streets (Corax data) and recompiled for faster re-drawing.

To Do:

Produce tourist orientated POI - underway

Recommended GPS setup NB: These are screens captured from a Legend - the settings shown should be similar and applicable to other Garmin models.


Orientation: 'North Up' if the roads are twisty. Many people prefer 'Track Up' but I find it is distracting when the screen redraws to reflect a new heading. Detail: 'Normal', though if I'm driving in a rural area - set to 'Most' which makes the roads appear at 2km zooms instead of the normal 800m.	Points of Interest: about '3km' - I find them annoying at 5km or greater. Street label: '800m', the 'Auto' setting makes the names appear from 300m	Street label: 'Med', the 'Small' setting makes the names hard to read when driving...though 'Small' does look better on screen when hand-held.

Sample Screen Shots (more samples available here)

How are these maps produced?

I have used existing publicly accessible data to generate this project, and freely available software to generate the maps. I have just purchased a set of Corax data from 2001 (which is being sold for a very reasonable cost) to help speed this project. The licensing of this Corax data allows me to produce the same 'open source' maps as I have already produced using the slow LINZ website extraction.

I am currently evaluating GPSMapEdit and MapDekode. MapDekode is winning at this stage for speed and workflow. The software I used has some limitations - no indexed streets - which means you can't search for a street. The search for POI and searching near the map pointer does work however.

I have produced two quick tutorials on GPSMapEdit and GPSTrackmaker. I'm not an expert in either but have found my way around enough to create some maps with them. Click the links to go to the tutorials.

Sources:
Software:		Data:
		All roads and streets from Ollivier & Co. Corax
GPSMapEdit (NB shareware) from www.geopainting.com		NZ State Highways from http://www.sdms.co.nz/
GPSTrackMaker from www.gpstm.com		NZ Coastline (rough version), lakes, rivers, basic place names from MAF Forestry Public Domain Export Files also http://www.ollivier.co.nz/atlas/atlasdata.html
MapDekode from http://www.gpstm.com/eng/dekode_eng.htm
cGPSMapper from http://cgpsmapper.com (free version used)		NZ Coastline (better version) currently Corax data, alternate: http://www.gisuser.co.nz/pages/download/download.asp
IMG2GPS (uploading tool) from http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mdipol/img2gps		NZ Place names (used for POI generation) LINZ from http://www.gisuser.co.nz/pages/download/download.asp
SendMap (uploading tool) from http://www.cgpsmapper.com/en/download.htm		LINZ NZGD2000 data (topographic, roads, streets, rivers etc) from http://www.nztopoonline.linz.govt.nz/website/nzgd2000topo/terms_cond.htm
XImage (GPS screen grabber snapshot tool from Garmin - what I used for the images on this page) http://www.garmin.com/support/agree.jsp?id=545		New Zealand Recreational GPS Users Society website http://gps.org.nz/
		MapDekode usergroup http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mapdekode
		GPS Map Authors usergroup http://groups.yahoo.com/group/map_authors/

New Zealand Open GPS Maps Project Legal Stuff

These NZ Open GPS maps are free software. Any distrubution of it must be for free and at cost of media, packaging and shipping only. No 'finders' or 'research' fee may be charged for this maps distribution. The content of this website (i.e. the pages and images) may not be copied / reproduced without my express permission.

These NZ Open GPS maps are distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

If you use these maps in any way (including any TradeMe GPS sellers who pre-load onto GPS units or provide the maps on CD along with the purchase of a GPS unit), please give "NZ Open GPS Maps Project" credit, and I'd also appreciate some feedback and which model of GPS you have so I can build up a list of hardware these maps work with: Contact

Now would be a good time to point out a few things: the data may not be 100% accurate. Don't blame me if you get lost! The normal navigation resources should be always used e.g. maps / charts / compass / local advise etc. The points of interest data is known to be slightly inaccurate as it was developed from points manually read from paper maps by LINZ...it is good enough for regional locations, just don't expect accuracy down to a couple of meters :-)

To access the 'source' of these maps:

GPSMapEdit - simply open the img files.
GPSTrackMaker - open the IMG file with MapDekode and choose the menu path File | Open IMG and then Database | Create DB from *.img. The resulting DBX can then be opened with GPSTrackMaker... more detailed description below:

Use the menu path File | Open IMG and choose the img of your choice
Use the menu path Database | Create DB from *.img
Choose a name
MapDekode will then create a .dbx file from the .img
In GPSTrackmaker use the menu path File | Open. Change the file type to MapDekode Text file (*.DBX) and open the file you just created with MapDekode.
The map will be a large yellow rectangle. Use the menu path Edit | Select all
Then Tools | Tracklogs / Routes | Change Tracklog style
Click on the scale button
Choose 'Country' from the drop-down scale menu and then click 'OK'
All the streets should become visible
The map can then be saved in the native Trackmaker format of .gtm

All data used from LINZ can be used freely, but the copyright remains with the Crown. The following is on their website, and should be included with any maps distributed that are generated from their data:

New Zealand Geographic Place-Names Database LINZ's Conditions of use: In circumstances where this data or derivatives of this data have been used to generate information dissemination products such as maps, digital database products, internet databases, gazetteer books or similar, a clear and prominent reference should be made to Land Information New Zealand as the source of the data. If the data has been downloaded and translated or imported into another format or computer program Land Information New Zealand will not be responsible for any problems arising from the use of the data. The spelling or composition of the place names must not be altered unless the change is made to keep the name in line with a New Zealand Geographic Board decision or to correct a known error as detailed by Land Information New Zealand. This data may be freely distributed provided that these conditions are distributed with the data and adhered to by all recipients.

Disclaimers
1. Copying, modification, on-supply and any other use of maps or data extracted from NZTopoOnline is undertaken at the users own risk.
2. Under no circumstances will LINZ be liable to users or to any other person for any loss or damage whatsoever caused directly or indirectly by any copying, modification, creation of derivative works, on-supply or other use of maps or data extracted from NZTopoOnline, or by any other error, omission or other inaccuracy in any such maps or data.

Copyright

All topographic data featured in NZTopoOnline is subject to Crown copyright protection or is licenced to the Crown (DEM data used for hill shading is supplied under licence by GeographX Ltd). You may use, copy and distribute the information extracted from NZTopoOnline in any format or media without charge. However where the data is distributed to a third party, the source, date of extract and copyright of the Crown must be acknowledged eg (NZTopoOnline, extracted July 2002, Crown Copyright Reserved).

FAQ

Q: Are the maps you have produced free? Whats the catch?
A: Yes they are free, and you are welcome to open them up and edit them etc. I'd like to see a whole series of NZ maps made available online with local interest data. As for a catch, there is no catch. I contribute to open source projects where I can and this is my current project. The Corax data I purchased did cost me money, but I bought it with the intent of using it for this project and making my GPS maps freely available online.

Q: Why are you doing this?
A: Because I like to do stuff... Actually I need to have an after hours distraction from work to keep my mind busy. I'm a Replenishment Analyst (Retail Supply Chain) during the day so it's nice to think about something else at night rather than work stuff...

Q: What Garmin GPS models do these maps work with?
A: All Garmin mapping GPS should work ok with these maps (providing Img2gps | Sendmap and / or MapSource can be used). The Nuvi 350 is not compatable with MapSource. Models that I have had specific 'successful' feedback on include:

Aviation Mapping	96, 96c, 296c (via datacard)
Etrex Mapping	Legend, Vista, Legend C, Vista C
60 Series Mapping	GPSMap 60, 60C, 60CS
70 Series Mapping	GPSMap 76, 76S, 76C, 76CS
PDA	iQue 3200, iQue 3600, iQue M5
Mobile Mapping	Quest, EMap, III+ (III+ limited to 1.4mb), V StreetPilot 2650
Chart Plotter	172C (via datacard), 276C

Q: Can the POI (point of interest) files be loaded onto a Garmin Venture / Garmin 72 / Garmin 76?
A: Yes - I understand they can take POI files - but please note these models are not capable of displaying any maps except POI.

Q: Can your maps be loaded using Garmin's MapSource software?
A: Yes. Thanks to some donated software I've got the maps working with MapSource. See here for detailed step by step instructions for installing the maps into MapSource using the installer (there is no real user interaction required)

Q: Where can I get Topo maps for my Garmin GPS?
A: There are some available - see here or contact KiwiLegend (Gary) on the NZ GPS Forums for details and cost. I have a set of these and they are very good.

Q: What about auto-routing maps?
A: Yes! Check the forums for details as they develop and grow.

Q: Will these maps work with my Japanese import's GPS system?
A: Nope, these are intended to work on Garmin GPS hardware only.

Q: What can I use to analyse data from my GPS - like tracks etc?
A: I recommend and use GPSTrackMaker - not only does it make maps, it can download tracks, routes and waypoints that you have created on your GPS, and save them to files. Another program worth a look is EasyGPS for working with waypoints, and G7toWin which can handle tracks, routes and waypoints - but no graphics.

Q: Is the Garmin Legend suitable for back-country use for tramping, trail biking or mountain biking?
A: The Legend is a good GPS unit, however it struggles under tree cover. There are other Garmin models available which work better under trees - GPSMap60, 60c / 60cs / 76c / 76cs - these have a better antenna and can also have an external amplified antenna plugged in which further improves reception in marginal conditions.

Q: What GPS should I get to record tracks on my mountainbike etc?
A: The If you open up a browser window with the Garmin page http://www.garmin.com/outdoor/products.html#mapping I'll go through a few options.

Most GPS units will record tracks and waypoints that can be uploaded to a program like TrackMaker. There are two distinct groups - the etrex series (Etrex, Summit, Legend, Vista, Venture, and may as well lump in the Geko series as well) have a 'patch' antenna which wouks ok if there is a clear view of the sky. They struggle under heavy tree cover. You can get a signal but it takes time and a bit of fiddling. The second group is the 60 / 76 series. They have a different antenna which works better in marginal conditions i.e. under tree cover, and can also have an external antenna plugged into them which improves signal quality alot.
Having a mapping GPS is a benefit as you can then use it in your car and recorded tracks and waypoints make more sence when looking at them on the GPS. Colour is nice but in my opinion not essential. All of NZ roads will just fit into 8mb (Legend), but more memory is a better choice as you may want to use maps with more features in the future (or in other countries)
Personally I own a greyscale Legend (8mb) and a GPSMap60 (24mb). I find the Map60 pretty good - I can record a good track with it in the top of my Camelbak. I get a better tracklog if I use an external antenna which I put on one of the shoulder straps of my Camelbak. The Legend needs a clear view of the sky or it will loose 'lock' frequently.

Q: Do your maps work in the back-country?
A: The maps I provide cover the whole country for streets / roads / highways and some features like lakes / rivers / DOC huts etc but no topographical detail like contour lines or every single landmark. There are commercial GPS maps available which have topo features on them which would be more suited to back country use.

Q: Do these maps work in colour?
A: Yes, though most of the screen shots on this page are from a Garmin Legend (which has a grey-scale display)

Q: Can these maps be used with a PocketPC?
A: Yes, some people do use them on the pocket PC platform. It requires the paid version of Pocket Map Viewer - see this thread and this site. Please note that I do not provide any support for PMV. I don't have a pocket PC or PMV so I can't answer any questions either.

Q: Can these maps be used with OziEplorer?
A: Yes - they need to be converted first. Use GPSMapEdit and load an img file. Once the img file is loaded, press '0' to force the display of all levels. Zoom in until you have a good level of detail to export. Follow the menu path File | Export | OziExplorer File. Select the 'Set whole map' button and confirm the file name and directory for the export. You will need quite a bit of video memory to do the export. The resulting .map and .bmp should be able to be opened with Ozi.

Q: How do I upload the maps to my GPS?
A:

Step by step instructions for installing and loading these maps with MapSource

Step by step instructions for loading these maps with SendMap

Contact

I welcome email and feedback etc, however, please read the FAQ first as your questions may have already been answered - the most common questions I get are from people having issues installing the maps onto their PC and uploading them to their GPS. Please contact me via the forums as your question may be able to be answered by the group.

NZ Links

Vorb.org.nz Best mountain bike website on the planet
Uniquely New Zealand A privately compiled website on NZ tourism	New Zealand Recreational GPS Users Society website http://gps.org.nz/
Tony KiwiGPS (TradeMe seller 'Savages') has been a great help with Garmin Software and hardware - top bloke and great to deal with! TradeMe Link Business Link
GPSriders.net - Not NZ specific, but covers GPSRs and their use on motorcycles	Te ARAROA - The Long Pathway -Te Araroa Trust is establishing a New Zealand-long foot trail
Geoff's NZ 'places' in gpx format. Geoff has converted the LINZ data to WGS84 and split the nearly 60,000 waypoints into districts.	I got my Legend GPS from Karl (Logical Choice Electronics) on TradeMe - great trader.
GISCover - outdoor tracklogs including NZ content. You can upload and download tracks in a couple of different formats including GPX. Great idea - I hope this resource grows. http://www.gpstravelmaps.com/ - GPSTravelMaps.com is exactly what the names says- GPS Travel Maps. If you have ever taken a trip for a weekend or even longer and tried to use your GPS while there, you may have noticed that the base map is very limited in its detail. Buying the maps for that particular location is unrealistic since you will only be there for a short time and the prices are too high. We have a simple solution for you. Download one of ours and have local scale maps in your GPS to use while exploring the area. The perfect solution for all travelers with a mapping GPS!	Remote Huts Westland - A small but passionate group of high-country recreationalists have continued to use and derive great pleasure from these structures over the years. This website aims to raise awareness about remote huts, and coordinate the efforts of hut users to assist in the preservation of these structures. There were over 60 huts or bivs from the Buller down to the Haast area intially proposed for minimal maintenance. This website, for practical reasons, limits its focus (with the potential of expanding) to around 40 structures in the Hokitika area, from the Taramakau catchment down to and including the Waitaha River in South Westland.

I've just come back from a road-trip / MTB trip in the South Island - some photos below. I've also done a write up of the trip on Vorb with many more pictures.

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NEW

I have created a NZ mapset designed to be used with the freely available GPSTrackMaker for use on PCs and Laptops. Click here for more info.

This is a side project that uses the same data as the NZ Open GPS Maps Project for Garmin. This side project grew out of an experiment and I thought people may find it useful - it's a vector mapset that is searchable for any named map feature. Using GPSTrackmaker on a laptop connected to just about any GPS - real time GPS navigation is possible! It's also great just for using as an atlas of NZ!

The website content is maintained using NVU (Free Open Source web authoring system - nearly as good as DreamWeaver for basic use!)
The site is maintained using FileZilla (Free Open Source FTP program - as good as - and in my humble opinion better than - WSFTP / FTP Commander / Cute FTP etc)