South Coast Track Fiordland NZ: Westie’s Hut: Topo Map Errors

Westies Hut, Price’s Harbour, Fiordland NZ.

I have encountered this once or twice before (also with the Australian series): Westies Hut, at the end of the South Coast Track is marked in the WRONG position in the DOC and Linz topo maps. It is actually located at the WESTERN end of Price’s Harbour, as a number of people have noted in texta on the DOC map in the Waitutu Hut (and in Moir’s Guide South), in other words on the next promontory west of where it is shown on the map.

Knife and Steel Harbour is also incorrectly located at the mouth of the Grant Burn instead of teh next inlet to the West. There used to be an old hut there, now (march 2016) pulled down by DOC.

I noticed a similar ‘mistake’ when moose hunting in the Hilda Burn near Supper Cove, Dusky Sound years ago. I followed a moose around for three hours in a large swamp above where the burn splits in two. I guessed the swamp to be a pretty flat 30-50 hectares at least yet it is not shown on the topo maps.

Where I grew up in the Hunter Valley (near Paterson) had a similar error sixty years ago: I had a ‘playground’ area of several square kilometres of forest completely missing from the maps at that time. Similarly when they put the first ‘Landsat’ up they discovered an area the size of Victoria ‘missing’ on the borders between Chile, Bolivia and Brazil.

There are still many wild places out there which have not felt the foot of man! http://www.linz.govt.nz/land/maps/linz-topographic-maps/map-chooser/map-28 & http://www.doc.govt.nz/Documents/parks-and-recreation/tracks-and-walks/southland/southern-fiordland-tracks-brochure.pdf