Mt Pole

Stuart and I had lunch next to the forested Mt Pole, which Stuart, Robin and John had surveyed for suitability a couple of years ago. From the road it looked very good. Here's a photo from the suitability survey.
On the sign next to the Forest it said that it was owned by Matariki Forests and managed by Rayonier. Does any of you have contacts here and can help us out with access (or a contactperson) to have another look at the area. It used to be owned by Carter Holt. Please put any information you might have as a comment below or flick me an email.

Meeting with Main Power

Stuart and I had a meeting with Main Power, who are working on a windmill project on top of Mt Cass. They were very positive about us organising orienteering at Mt Cass and would like to support us by giving us access to their very high resolution aerial photos and 2 meter contours of part of the area if we go ahead with the mapping project.
Next step is to contact the biggest landowner in the area, which is TransWaste and Richard, Trish and I have already had a meeting about Kate Valley, where they were very positive. Hopefully they will be as positive about us accessing Mt Cass. We can then start investigating the area and its possibilities a bit further.

The New Mapping Blog

Now the new PAPO Mapping Blog is in the air or more accurately online. There are few things that needs a bit more work, but the main subjects should be there with examples of the data which should be available in the future.
The list of maps will all have a link like the Bottle Lake and please follow the link to get to a google map with an outline of the forest area and bolbs showing the main parking places/meeting places (have found this through a post by Michael Wood on MapTalk) and I would like to do this for all of our maps (and make the links available for the club homepage).
Please put your comments to the articles/posts forward using the little link underneath every post. Any comments will be good and especially suggestions and so fort.
I hope that some of the rest of you are interested in posting on the blog too and to do that please send me an email and I'll get it sorted out for you to the benefit for all of us.

LIDAR scans

In Denmark the Orienteering Federation has started to use LIDAR scans, which according to rumours produce very accurate contors (down to 0.5 meter contours) and even quite usable contours in areas with dense vegetation. At the moment I'm looking into prices and available scans from the New Zealand. Read more on this technique through the links below.

http://www.nzam.com/article.asp?id=lidar

and another article on what data are available in the Auckland Region

http://www.nzam.com/article.asp?id=current_project

Latest on Bottle Lake Mapping Update

Michael Wood has now only got a wee bit to go on remapping the whole of Bottle Lake Forest (excluding all the impassable stuff), but we have used the budgetted money for this year and are awaiting the result of a Pub Charity Application.
Dave Laurie has received the latest version, which will be put into action already in September at the Schools Championships.
The map looks very good and Alister Mettherel (controller on the one of the school champs) was out checking it up yesterday, and might give us a comment below on how he liked it.
An update of the vegetation in the area which burned close to Spencerviller will need to be done soon as this area most definitely will be used in September as well.
Later the whole foot orienteering map will be used a base for a brandnew MTB-O map.

Castle Hill Outdoor Centre

Penny Wright has a contact at Castle Hill Outdoor Centre, who are interested in getting their map made by Chrissie in 1988 updated. The contact person might be the same person, that Dave had contact with from St Andrew College.
At the moment we are waiting for replies from different compagnies about aerial photos. Penny will look to maybe entend the old map, which we then in turn might be able to use for our own orienteering events in the future.

Map check ups on areas for coming up events!

It would be good if some of us mappers could get out there and do a bit of a check up on the maps, we’re going to use for our events and then save planners and controllers lots of time doing their job if things has to be updated.
David Pugh-Williams has all ready started out with checking up on the Chaneys Map, which turned out to be not usable at all since the good bits of the forest had been felled and the rest was still too thick.
Does anybody know if the following maps need a check up:
Waikari
Leithfield (I know that there is a bit of the map that can be updated as it is now run able (towards the main highway on the flat white part of the map))
Groynes (David PW is currently working on an extention, but maybe other things need to be checked up as well)
Akaroa
More maps to come later on!

Mapper Training day

I would like to identify how many of you, that would be interested in a Mapping Training Day!
A day where the experienced mappers could tell about the process of making a map and the new ones could get a bit of hands on start up experience. Then the experienced mappers could have a bit of a discussion on how to map a certain area and we could all get a view into what to focus on when mapping.

New Areas

Mount Cass:
I went up on Mount Cass with Rob Jessop and the terrain looks very promising, rather wild in places, with lots of rock and clearings and sink holes and native bush. We will have to investigate access a bit more, but have a couple of options and then have a chat to some landowners + try to do a little trial map before jumping into a big project.
At the moment we have contact to Andrew Hurley from Main Power (investigating to make Wind Mill Power Generation on Mt Cass) and we are trying to get a meeting set up to look into the possibilities of having orienteering in the area.

Nina Valley:
On the way back from Springs Junction we checked up on the Nina Valley and it looked promising with very nice open Beech Forest and quite a few features on the slope and in the flat area. Definitely a beautifull forest, that we probably will have a closer look at in the future.

Kate Valley:
Richard E. and Trish and I went up to have a look at Kate Valley, and there are definitely some good bits but there is also some very long and thick and almost impenetrable. We are keeping an eye on it.

Springs Junction:
Went up there with Jamie Stewart and Chris Forne and checked out some bits that looked promising on the topo and Google earth, but they were partly too thick and partly a bit too bland. It was pooring down and we might go again to check out some more bits and pieces.

PAPO Base Material for mapping

I have a whole lot of basematerial sitting around in our house and if you need something for your mapping please let me know and I’ll have a look in the archives.