New Zealand GoogleEarth KAP Charts

Hi everyone,

This is another technical post.  Last week I created a set of about 400 New Zealand anchorage, mooring and marina waypoints, primarily for use in OpenCPN.  They're publicly available and described here.  This week's task was to create GoogleEarth KAP satellite image 'charts' for them all.  KAP charts can be displayed in OpenCPN.

Viewing Zen Again's location in OpenCPN using KAP charts

Many sailors using satellite imagery in OpenCPN have abandoned KAP charts in favour of MBTILES charts.  The latter allow one to zoom in and out, viewing varying levels of detail while doing so.  I prefer to only use satellite imagery when zoomed in on a small area, for example a narrow pass or a small bay.  KAP files are also much smaller, for example MBTILES for all New Zealand is about 6GB while my KAP files are about 400MB.  Both formats have their uses.

Read this post to learn about our KAP library and how to use satellite imagery.

The KAP library is on Dropbox here and the file is Australasia_NewZealand.zip.

The quality of satellite imagery varies enormously - regardless of format.  Below are a series of KAP charts in OpenCPN.  They range from very clear to 'clear as mud'.  Many of the Fiordland images are very dark due to poor light in the fiords - they're surrounded by tall mountains after all!

Napier Harbour

Sailor's Rest on Stewart Island

Kelly's in Fiordland

Alice Falls in Fiordland - note the water course

Harrison Cove in Fiordland

If you look carefully at the image below you'll see lots of small red 'dots'.  They're actually rectangles showing the location of each chart.  The set includes all main cruising areas, but of course no set is exhaustive.

All of these KAP charts were created using the VFKaps OpenCPN plugin.  This fantastic tool makes the process very easy.  The 'VF" in VFKaps refers to VentureFarther, a web site setup to assist cruisers.  To create KAP files using the plugin you need to pay a US$20 subscription to VentureFarther.  This buys you the API key required by the plugin.  Worth every cent!

If you find our KAP file library useful consider donating using the button at the top of this page.  Alternately Buy Us A Coffee.

Trust all's well where you are!