In addition to contour lines, relief shading helps visualise the terrain. Hills and valleys are shaded as if they were illuminated from the north-west.
Relief layers were generated for each sheet, and specifically for use in the Topo250 map series. There may be subtle differences in the relief shading of adjacent map sheets.
The Topo250 map series provides topographic mapping for the New Zealand mainland and Chatham Islands, at 1:250,000 scale.
Further information on Topo250: http://www.linz.govt.nz/topography/topo-maps/topo250
Source
LINZ and our predecessors have been responsible for national topographic mapping in New Zealand for more than a hundred years.
The first digital data at 1:250,000 scale was created in the late 80’s by scanning the 1:250,000 maps that existed at the time (known as the NZMS 262 series, which replaced the earlier NZMS 18 series)
The NZMS 262 series were generalised from the NZMS 260 series.
The Topo250 map series were compiled from a mix of information from the NZMS 262 series, and that from the Topo50.
In future, LINZ will release regular updates of the Topo250 maps and data. Details will be posted at http://www.linz.govt.nz/docs/topography/250-sheet-history.xls
