New map helps trippers to pick out the choice bits of Banks Peninsula

Press, 24 August 1985, Page 19

New map helps trippers to pick out the choice bits of Banks Peninsula

By

GARRY ARTHUR

According to Maori tradition, six Ngati Mamoe chiefs from a pa at Clay Point, at the easternmost end of Banks Peninsula, were blown out to sea while fishing, many generations ago, and became the original inhabitants of the Chatham Islands.

That is one of many sidelights of local history which the Lands and Survey Department has included on its new tourist and recreational map of Banks Peninsula. The many pa sites indicated on the map show the extent of Maori settlement in pre-European times. As the notes show, some came to a tragic end at the hands of the marauding “brown Napoleon” Te Rauparaha — Takapuneke kainga at Kaik Hill, Akaroa, which was sacked by him in 1830. and the Ngai Tahu musket-fighters’ pa on Onawe Peninsula in Akaroa Harbour, attacked and taken by him two years later. The view from Hilltop overlooking Onawe Peninsula and Akaroa Harbour has been used for the title panel.

Scenic reserves are a prominent feature of the new’ map, and Onawe reserve is the most popular of all with the public. Next most popular is Kaituna Valley, third is Otepatotu on the Summit Road above Le Bons Bay, and fourth is

the Garden of Tane in Akaroa. As well as Banks Peninsula, the new map goes up to Kaiapoi in the north and West Melton to the west, and shows such recreational features as Macleans Island and Lake Ellesmere, with an enlarged inset of Akaroa.

European history is not overlooked. Near Tai Tapu the map notes that Otahuna was the “grandiose home of Sir R. Heaton Rhodes. Spacious grounds and gardens famed for daffodil display.” On the way to Little River the map reminds the traveller that the first New Zealand-made locomotive ran on the line (now closed) between there and Christchurch. One of a series of tourist and recreational maps which includes the Central Otago lakes, Lake Taupo, and the Milford Track, the Banks Peninsula map is drawn to the scale of one centimetre to one kilometre, which is half the scale of Lands and Survey’s new NZMS 260 topographical series. Contours and roads are based on the topographical map, but the recreational map’s special feature is that it brings together

map for the first time all significant foot-tracks and walkways, reserves, old whaling stations and saw mills, pa sites, picnic spots, camping grounds, launch trips, swimming and fishing beaches. Historical and descriptive notes are expanded on the back of the

map. The mapping process for the topographical maps on which the recreational map is based begins with aerial photographs, followed up by surveyors on the ground. Sophisticated stereoplotting instruments are then used to measure the details of the aerial photographs and plot contours and topographical detail. This plotting is ground-checked by survey staff to verify that what has been interpreted from the pictures is correct, and to add other information not visible on the photographs. From all of that information, the draughtsman prepares the final drawings — not with pen and ink these days, but by scribing lines on a coated plastic sheet with a sapphire-tipped cutter. John Paterson, who is in charge

of the Lands and Survey mapping division in Christchurch, says this technique produces a more even line, with better control of thickness. For the Banks Peninsula map, separate drawings had to be made for each of the eight colours. Canterbury is New Zealand’s biggest land district, and the Christchurch area was the scene of the earliest recorded aerial survey in the country, flown from Wigram in February, 1926. The back country was not flown over for mapping until the 19605, and John Paterson’s history of mapping in Canterbury notes that although the resultant maps verified the excellent work of the pioneering surveyors in many cases, some errors showed up — including a two-mile mistake in the position of the Main Divide through part of Arthur’s Pass National Park.

He says that research into the names of mountain peaks and other back-country features proved a headache. Many pioneering and historical names were perpetuated, but the Geographic Board rejected some suggestions as not being in “good taste.” These included Bustmagall, Nosewiper Stream, and Maternity Stream — a breeding place for pigs. Several hundred new names .appeared on the new maps, and the

Christchurch office maintains a card index of all the Canterbury place names it investigated. New Zealand’s metrication on January 1, 1973, meant that all maps had to be reviewed and upgraded. The NZMS 260 series on which the new Banks Peninsula map is based is the result. The scale is larger than that of the previous series, the maps are larger, and relief definition is improved with a contour interval of 20 metres, compared with 100 ft on the NZMS 1 series. Graphic presentation was also improved.

Publication of all 14 sheets for the Canterbury coastal plain from Temuka to Banks Peninsula should be completed early next year. Eleven have been printed so far. Those covering the coastline north of Banks Peninsula will probably not be printed before 1990, Mr Paterson says, and completion of the Canterbury high-country sheets will depend on national priorities and

Street maps are another Lands and Survey product. Christchurch was last redrawn in 1983. "The size and shape of Greater Christchurch is at an awkward stage so far as map scale and sheet pattern is concerned.” says John Paterson. “Reluctantly, and with some difficulty, we kept to one sheet at the unusually small scale of 1:25,000 for the last re-draw in 1983, but in the near future the break point will be reached when a multiple sheet series is necessary.” He says head office is nowconsidering a proposal for a multiple sheet series on a larger scale, to include Rangiora, Kaiapoi, and Belfast. Other recreational maps like the Banks Peninsula one are also being considered, including one of the St James Walkway, one of the Waitaki Lake.', and one of the Lewis Pass region. introduction of computer mapping to district offices is now being considered by Lands and Survey. This would be used to digitise the cadastral records (maps showing legal boundaries down to the smallest legal subdivision) as. a first step towards a "land information system.” Aeronautical charts and the electoral index of places and streets are already computerbased. v ,

High-country maps last