New Zealand Anchorages

Hi everyone,

This is a technical post!  It describes a GPX file downloadable from our public Dropbox site.  The file contains about 400 New Zealand anchorages, moorings and marinas.  I expect it to grow over time.  It has been compiled primarily from cruising guides.

Overview

The accuracy of these waypoints has NOT been verified.  They are NOT for use in navigation.

GPX files can be loaded into many chartplotters.  This file was constructed in OpenCPN v5.  We have not tried other chartplotters and welcome feedback advising success/failure.

Four main symbols are used:

 Swing anchorage or anchor and rig own shore line(s)

 Anchor and use provided shore line(s)

 Swing mooring or side-moor hawser

 Marina

The GPX file may be downloaded from our Dropbox GPXlibrary folder here.

The filename is 'ZenAgain_NZ_Waypoints.gpx'.

Other files in this folder are zip files of our tracks in various parts of the world.

Most of the marks/waypoints have the ScaleMin parameter set.  This prevents densely packed waypoints obscuring the under-lying chart.  Only those in the screenshot above don't.  For example here is a screenshot showing Northlands overall, including the Bay of Islands.  Only a few are visible in the Bay of Islands.

Northlands Overview

And here's the full set in the Bay of Islands.  They emerge as you zoom in.

Bay of Islands Detail

Another example is Fiordland where only one is visible in the top screenshot above.  Zoom in to see them all.  The screenshot below shows most but not all.

Fiordland Detail

And finally here's a screenshot of Port Pegasus, Stewart Island.

Port Pegasus Detail

The sources used include:

• Island Cruising South Island Rally yearbook (SIR)
• A Boaties Guide to Fiordland (BG2F)
• Fiordland by Sea (FbS)
• Stewart Island Cruising Guide (SICG)
• Various North Island cruising guides
• NoForeignLand

Some of the marks/waypoints provide a NoForeignLand URL and/or cruising guide pages using the acronym shown in () above.  Here's an example's Properties in OpenCPN.  It has three separate sources and ScaleMin is set to 2000000.

 

All names (but not the example above) start with 'ZA_'.  This allows easy sorting and deletion.

The file will be updated occasionally as our New Zealand cruise progresses.

Here's hoping cruisers will find the file useful.  If you do feel free to buy us a beer - link at top-level!