RE: IN THE NEWS

Doh forget about the last post big fingers pmcke you are 100% right i downloaded all the maps for the Hollyford and stuck them together and put on the wall,a great sight to see.There will always be someone who complains about something and wont do anything about it,the map people can only fix it if they know about it

The other thing is that this implies that map makers are in some way accountable for tramper's safety. I certainly would not want to see them being shy about putting things on maps incase someone kicks them in the butt later. Trampers are accountable for their OWN safety. You can always ring a DOC office or ask the local tramping club or look at tramper.co.nz to see about track conditions. A map is only part of the information. The bigger problem with maps is not what is on there that is not correct but what is not. For example, a while ago LINZ issued a map of the Kaiangaroa Forest which did not have any of the forestry roads on it. The reason was because the Forest Company did not want their private roads put on the map. Now that is wrong... if a road that you can drive a truck along exists then it should be on the map. I believe that issue has been resolved now. Another issue is a track that DOC have decided they do not want to maintain any more. So they tell LINZ to remove it from the map, despite the fact that the track still exists and people are using it. Is that correct? What actually constitutes a track anyway?

I seem to have lost the earlier threads to this discussion but heard a news item today on national radio with regard to the new topo50 maps showing tracks that dont exist in the ruahines. They interviewed the head guide from the manawatu tramping club? who expressed the opinion that she was glad she hadnt thrown away her old maps as they where more reliable. A leap in faith in my opinion as maps have only ever been one of many sources of information on which to make a decision. I seem to recall the old maps having their fare share of mistakes as well. I remain responsibile for my own safety.

Maps will never be perfect, my approach is to generally trust that larger features will stay put or be correct located (large river bends, ridges, peaks etc). I am less trusting of the man-made elements on a map, tracks change, huts get moved, bridges wash away. As so many people have said, its only one tool, especially when planning a trip.

Hello. The radio interview was on Morning Report and it's streamable from any of the following links (depending on your format of preference): Windows Media Player: http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/mnr/2010/03/02/trampers_find_errors_in_new_topographical_maps MP3: http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20100302-0838-Trampers_find_errors_in_new_topographical_maps-048.mp3 Ogg Vorbis: http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20100302-0838-Trampers_find_errors_in_new_topographical_maps.ogg And yes I agree regarding personal responsibility. Errors on maps are hardly new and it seems unusual for a tramping club chief guide to be surprised...

In response to this publicity, LINZ have now put an email link on their site to enable people to notify them regarding errors. However this is just a pose as they won't acknowledge our authority to notify them of current conditions. My evidence for stating this is that Doug Forster who developed the excellent Freshmap program has repeatedly notified them of topographic erros and they have never acted on this highly reliable information. http://www.linz.govt.nz/topography/projects-programmes/news-notices/2010/0302-report-map-discrepancies/index.aspx You can bet that LINZ will only accept information from DoC regarding discrepencies between the map and the field. I won't be surprised if DoC will soon begin to instruct LINZ to purge their database of all the tracks DoC with its reduced budget is unwilling to maintain. I suspect the tramping party Kim Fraser was involved with were unable to locate or recognise a long overgrown track. We used to use a track from East Ruggedy hut to Hellfire on Stewart Island. It was abandoned due to excessive mud and a new track was cut not too many years ago (maybe 8?). It requires quite a bit of attentiveness to spot where the old track starts and comes back to the new one these days. Let's all get off our butts and keep these old tracks open. Frank has stated it more eloquently in Mark Pickering's book!

Here's the link to this original thread and the other 82 comments http://www.tramper.co.nz/?id=355&view=topic&offset=81

Yeah.. not sure whythis thread broke. Matthew?

I think it's that 'Post to a new thread' button right next to the 'Post Message' button, hence my recent comment over in the Suggestions & Feedback forum.