Te Araroa Offline Map Files

A while ago a friend of mine asked for some help in getting maps for his upcoming Te Araroa hike, on his smart phone. I decided to create an offline map file for his use, and I am now sharing it with anyone else who might be interested.


I started out by researching the services offered by Landcare Research, and ended up using their TMS Tile servers for the Topo Base Map and a Text layer on top of it, to create a useful map of the trail. I wanted to use my own little app (OMFG) to download the tiles and create the offline map file, but unfortunately it can not handle creating a single map file from two tile sources (topo + text). So I ended up using the excellent MOBAC app, after making some minor code improvements.
On smaller zoom levels, the map seems a bit empty, but at the zoom levels most people would normally navigate (13-15), it shows all the elevation contours, streams and rivers, roads and place names. It seems like a good map to have handy, on such a long trail.

I later bumped into a post on Facebook that directed me to this site. The site offers offline maps for what I assume is the whole of New Zealand, in two separate files. One for each Island. Each file is around 1GB in size. That’s pretty big, though it’s still very useful. I looked at the data source for those maps, and found the Land Information New Zealand web site and web services, which offered a different set of map tiles than the ones I used for my first file. This time, I was able to use my own app to create an offline map file that uses their Topo250 data for zoom levels of 0-11, and the Topo50 data for zoom levels of 12-15 (I chose the grid-less option, to remove some clutter from the map).

Here is a view on the data I used for my files. You can switch between the two sources by hovering over that blue button at the top right of the map. Notice that this interactive map will show all of New Zealand, so you can zoom in and out anywhere you’d like, on either island. But the offline files only contain the trail corridor itself (and ~1.5Km around it). You can switch the layers to see the difference in the maps themselves. Make sure you check out the higher zoom levels, to really decide which one you prefer.
In my opinion, the LINZ map looks a bit better than the Landcare one, but If I had to chose, I’d take both of them with me, and alternate according to my needs. Each file is 478MB, so I was able to get a good size for the entire TA.
The only thing that is bothering me with those maps, is that in lower zoom levels (check out around 8-11), the trail corridor seems a bit too narrow. I thought about maybe adding the whole of New Zealand at those levels, just to get a better understanding of your whereabouts in comparison to places a bit further away from you. If there is a need for such an improvement, I can give it a shot. Don’t hesitate to ask.

DISCLAIMER:

Please double check that the files contain all the mapping data you might need while on the trail. Mistakes might have been made (and probably were made) during the file's creation, so don't rely only on them on your hike. Have backup maps in case your phone's power run out, or the files don't contain a required section. Use your own judgement.

Here are the files:

Both versions follow the trail corridor defined by the TeAraroaTrail_asTrack.gpx file from here. I am sure you can use the other versions on that site, as they should all follow the same route.
Land Information (BCNav) (474MB)
Landcare Research (BCNav) (472MB)
Land Information (Orux) (474MB)
Landcare Research (Orux) (390MB)
A detailed walk-through on how to use these files with Backcountry Navigator or Orux Maps can be found here.

PCT Offline Maps

Before hiking the PCT, I got hold of a very nice and comfortable file containing all the maps along the PCT. I got it from a friend, and I don't know how he got it, but it was very helpful indeed, especially when I used it along with BackCountry Navigator and the GPX files from Halfmile's site.
The past week, I've been fiddling around with creating a similar file myself, so I can freely post it over here, and distribute it to anyone who might want it. This post might get a bit too technical, so if you are here is just for the file,

It's in here (637Mb)

(Download on your home computer, or via Wi-Fi) Here's how to use the file as a map source in BackCountry Navigator:

1. Copy it into your Android phone, under the bcnav\atlases folder (not sure exactly on how to do it on iPhone, but I assume it can be done).

   

2. Inside BackCountry Navigator, tap on the "Layers" icon at the top

   

3. Tap on "More Map Sources..."

   

4. Tap on "Use Mobile Atlas" and select the file.

   

You will now have good quality topographical maps all along the trail, from Mexico to Canada. All you have to do now, is import the GPX files from Halfmile's site, and see the trail, side trails and waypoints, directly on the map.

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And now, to the technical bits -
At first, I looked around the internet for the source of the file I originally had. I quickly found OpenStreetMap and OpenCycleMap as available map tile resources (though they do not freely allow bulk download of tiles). The OpenCycleMap project does show elevation lines, and would be appropriate for navigation while hiking.
I needed to go over the whole trail (a collection of lat/long coordinates), and for each such coordinate, download the appropriate map tiles, on different zoom levels (zoom level 0 is the entire world. zoom level 15 is a very well detailed map of about 4.7 meters per pixel, or 5.2 yards per pixel). Since the trail is continuous, many coordinates will appear on the same tile, so I'll only have to download tiles I haven't downloaded before.
Searching some more on the internet, I found the excellent free application Mobile Atlas Creator (MOBAC), which is doing exactly what I was looking for - it can take in data from GPX files (but not Google Earth KML/KMZ), select a map source, and pick all the needed tiles to download from the source. Then, it can create an Atlas, for different navigation applications. It already has a setting for BackCountry Navigator sqlite format, which was just what I was looking for. But if anybody here needs the offline file for a different mapping application, I will gladly help with creating it as well.
I had one major problem with using MOBAC - it did not contain the tile server source I was looking for.
Searching around some more, I ran into CalTopo, another nice site which allows different tiling servers to be displayed inside the browser. I finally found the source I was looking for, while looking around in their different options. It was ArcGIS USA Topo Maps. Success!
That was the bit where I started writing my own code, and putting up a simple application that reads a KML/KMZ file, calculates all the tiles it needs to download, and downloads it all from a selected map source. I had fun writing this app, and I think I will still improve upon it. But two days ago I realized I can just add this map source to use in MOBAC, and it deal with the entire downloading and packaging the result for me.
So yesterday and today I did just that. I let MOBAC do the heavy lifting. Another annoying thing in MOBAC is that it only lets you select tiles along a single track every time, so I downloaded the code, and changed it a bit to allow adding multiple tracks at the same time. It made making the Atlas much easier.
I kept getting a huge Atlas as a result, though. My original file was ~500Mb, and I kept getting files that were more around 4000Mb. That's quite a big difference. I kept fighting with it today, until I finally realized that MOBAC was downloading the tiles as JPG files from the tile server, and then converts them into PNG files, which increases their size (And not their quality). After realizing that, I've finally been able to create this file here, for the enjoyment of every future PCT hiker!
I will make similar files for other trails as well (AT, CDT, JMT, for start. And also the INT and some trails in Europe, but with different map sources). I will also gladly help anyone needing those files to be in different output format, for other mobile navigation apps. Don't hesitate to ask!