At the end of the day few inaccuracies are really that much.Even the example of mine wouldnt of been much over 20 metres. If you arrive at a hut by the back door instead of the front does it really matter.
geeves - I'd call the inaccuracy of not mentioning the track crossing a usually uncrossable river pretty major!! Might as well just have an arrow saying the track goes up this valley somewhere, and we dunno which side of the river, but she'll be right. I saw DOC bait station things along the track so it had me wondering if they walk to so often why shouldn't it be better mapped.
Those "few" inaccuracies could give someone fatal exposure at a less clement time of the year, if they didn't have a tent etc and failed to make it to the hut.
Given it's a route I would normally have expected it to be really mind boggling, but given there's a quad bike track up the valley all the way to the hut (which also crossed the river and disappeared) it is easy to think things will be straightforward.
I suppose it's easy for a long term hiker to get used to this sort of thing and think it's no biggie, but I suspect it's this sort of thing that sets up a tourist part time hiker for an early death. DOC rave on about the wasps and sidestream crossings, but their dodgy maps seem to be right up there as main threat contender.
This post has been edited by the author on 12 January 2015 at 19:13.
First lets make sure we are in the same place. There is more than one Bobs hut.
http://www.tramping.net.nz/huts-nelson-lakes/bobs-hut
Lovely place
Looking at the topo map at
http://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap/nz35730/Bobs-Hut/Tasman
I think I can see the problem but without ever being there Whats on the ground might vary
Starting from 2 different places on Mole road is never a good start but if you started from the western one it would be so easy to end up following the vehicle track up the true left of the river till it runs out just upstream of the Materiki Base Hut
This would leave you at a fairly knarly looking crossing. The real track is walking only on the other side and does not cross the river until the river branches into the east and west branches some 22km further up the river Here there is a short cut across the river or a short detour across 2 bridges then 3 more km to Bobs Hut.
Thats how I would read that map anyway. Ive never been anywhere near the place so cant comment if reality is different.
Ok to confuse more matariki base hut has been removed
Maps are all produced by LINZ I would of expected any maps supplied by Doc to be at least based on the new topo50 maps.
"Kind of disappointed DOC never got back to me on this. This particular office had at least been quick to respond about a query I had before the trip. Guess they just dismissed me as a muppet that couldn't read maps."
Sometimes I find people closer to ground level can be tardier to respond. I don't always know the reason but tend to be forgiving because I figure they're more likely to be out actually doing stuff, and don't always live next to their mailboxes or necessarily prioritise good mail handling practices, even if they should. Chances are someone forwarded your correspondence to a person they deemed relevant, then forgot about it, and maybe it's been lost if someone's on holiday.
I normally find that if I politely sent a follow-up then someone will at least acknowledge it quickly and apologise before following up more urgently. Aternatively if you forward something to head office (where it'll probably go via the people whose direct jobs are to track down info and answer questions), asking if they can confirm that the local area's email addresses are still active, it'll often get someone else chasing the local staff to respond.
Okay well done geeves, you've confused me even more! lol Not sure where "Materiki" even is, that wasn't a typo was it? The valley also has an "East Matakitaki hut", surely there's only one of those, NOT to be confused with Matukituki.
Gotta love the Maori names. lol
izogi - Yeah not too sure if this office had a lot of busy field staff or not. It's called Nelson Visitor Centre, so the name suggests there would be a full time desk person, however, as you say they may have had to forward my email on to some more clued up person. I did "politely" send them another mail, and to their credit they did reply this one.
This post has been edited by the author on 14 January 2015 at 18:12.
that wasn't a typo was it?
Ok I cant spell sorry
The valley also has an "East Matakitaki hut",
I saw that but once again Im a poor speller
Wwe are on the same page even if mine is a little fuzzy.
Haha no worries. You have to bring your A game when it comes to those Maori names!!
