Maps

I support the right of anyone to tackle a route in the order they wish. It is important they know the route and the risks it presents. They should be aware of the inconvenience they pose to others who might have to assist or retrieve them. I believe no-one has the right to tell them they can't do it. Why would we want tramping to regulated?

Yup. Well, he paid the ultimate price for his dodgy maps! He wasn't anywhere near the infamous Waterfall Face when he fell. He managed to find an even more heinous route.

Natural selection?

The LINZ topographic maps have all been stitched together into one huge interactive image here: http://www.topomap.co.nz/ A bit easier to use than the individual downloadable GeoTIFF images ;)

Magic stuff...........thanks for the link.

Regarding datums and trig stations and flat'ish hacked out models of the Earth like NZGD1949 (referenced earlier in this thread), an example of all the subjectivity in maps and heights and distances popped up in a Canterbury maths competition earlier this month, where some secondary students showed that Ruapehu is 600 metres higher than Aoraki/Mt Cook. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4015331 It looks as if they're using a very simple datum that's based on measuring the distance from the Earth's centre, and that'd have to be yet another subjective point in space. With the planet not being a tidy sphere, anything closer to the equator appears higher, so the same method probably puts a lot of New Zealand below sea level (whatever that is). Still...