Pocket Queries and Great Walks

[+BlanKenovi]

Hey,

 

in the beginning of 2011 I will leave Germany for travelling NZ from the middle of January until the end of March. During that time, I would like to have a look for some geocaches. Now I'm wondering how to get all geocaches onto my Garmin Oregon 400t?! Any advice? If I transfered the relevant PQs to a USB-Stick, would it be possible to transfer them back to the GPS-device in public Internet-Cafés? I've made some experience with travelling around the world and in some countries it is fordbidden, to connect foreign flashdrives with their computers. I think they were afraid of viruses. Do you think, this would be also a problem in NZ?

 

Furthermore I would like to know where I can download the gpx-files of the Great Walks? I have already asked google, but that didn't help me much...

 

Thank in advance,

Sebastian

[+Kevs_Team]

I use GSAK to transfer all new zealand caches via a couple of pocket queries

[+Huntleigh]

Hey,

 

...snip...

 

Furthermore I would like to know where I can download the gpx-files of the Great Walks? I have already asked google, but that didn't help me much...

 

Thank in advance,

Sebastian

 

By GPX file for the Great Walks do you mean route information or the geocaches on the walks?

 

You can download free NZ maps for Garmin GPS's here;Topo Maps for Garmin GPS. "RC's DOC tracks" will cover all the Great Walks.

 

If you want to find geocaches on the Great Walks you may need to build your own. I think you might find that you won't find all that many caches on the Great Walks because a) the Walks are all on National Parks and by virtue of them being "great walks" there is a cache maintenance problem for cache owners.

 

For instance, there is one (Earthcache) on the Milford Track. There are a couple of caches at the track ends only on the Heaphy. The exception to this is the Tongariro Crossing which has stacks of caches.

 

I hope you enjoy your trip.

[+Trumpkin-NZ]

I use GSAK to transfer all new zealand caches via a couple of pocket queries

 

Could you give some details as to how you do this? I'd love to be able to have all the NZ ones loaded up so that no matter where I find myself I can always look for caches.

[+Kevs_Team]

I use GSAK to transfer all new zealand caches via a couple of pocket queries

 

Could you give some details as to how you do this? I'd love to be able to have all the NZ ones loaded up so that no matter where I find myself I can always look for caches.

 

Hi,

 

I pick a location like central auckland and run a packet query for all caches with x number of km from that position, then repeat the process down the map of NZ. this should take about 8 or so queries

then I setup a query to run every week that will give me all new caches within NZ using the same process.

 

This data is then read into GSAK which then puts the data onto my GPS

 

Hope this helps

 

Kevin

[+BlanKenovi]

Thanks for all suggestions mentioned here.

 

By GPX file for the Great Walks do you mean route information or the geocaches on the walks?

 

I'm looking for the gpx-files of the tracks itselfs. Isn't there an official Homepage providing these files? Maybe on the hp of the DOC? I couldn't find it?!

 

Hi,

 

I pick a location like central auckland and run a packet query for all caches with x number of km from that position, then repeat the process down the map of NZ. this should take about 8 or so queries

then I setup a query to run every week that will give me all new caches within NZ using the same process.

 

This data is then read into GSAK which then puts the data onto my GPS.

 

If have not used GSAK so far. I just read some instructions and - if i understand everything correctly - I have to take a laptop with me!? Is this correct? Or das GSAK help me to dupe my Oregon 400t? According to Garmin, the Oregon is able to handle with just 2000 Caches..

Edited November 11, 2010 by BlanKenovi

[+Huntleigh]

Thanks for all suggestions mentioned here.

 

By GPX file for the Great Walks do you mean route information or the geocaches on the walks?

 

I'm looking for the gpx-files of the tracks itself. Isn't there an official Homepage providing these files? Maybe on the hp of the DOC? I couldn't find it?!

 

 

You'll find all the maps you need for a Garmin unit on the link I gave in my last post. Below I have posted three screen shots of the Mt Tongariro area from MapSource. Same area, same resolution. The first is the free streets map; the second is RC's DOC (Department of Conservation) track map (which shows the beginning of the Tongariro Crossing Great Walk) and finally Joel's topographic map.

 

They are all free and I think a Colorado should be able to load all three at the same time and have them superimposed. I'm off to bed now but if you're interested in getting these maps let us know and I'll post direct links tomorrow.

 

 

 

[+Trumpkin-NZ]

I pick a location like central auckland and run a packet query for all caches with x number of km from that position, then repeat the process down the map of NZ. this should take about 8 or so queries

then I setup a query to run every week that will give me all new caches within NZ using the same process.

 

This data is then read into GSAK which then puts the data onto my GPS

 

Thanks for the reply kevstream.

 

I've found that there are too many in the North Island alone to fit onto my GPS (Oregon 450) which can "only" hold 5000 caches. So what I've done is to restrict the PQ to with 150km of home and to create a number of PQs that search based on a date range for when the cache was placed. I'm running these once a week so I have fairly up to date logs plus I'm running on a daily basis a PQ that looks for all new logs in the same area on a daily basis.

 

Doing the date range PQs it is very obvious to see how the number of caches has increased drastically in the last few years.