Extreme Closeup
Seems I’ve spotted this a few days after the fact, but aerial imagery for Christchurch and Wellington has been updated by Google (as of August 26th) and is now available through the iPhone’s maps app as well as via Google Earth and Google Maps for desktop computers.
The imagery is now much higher resolution than it was previously, and allows you to zoom in to the maximum level without the annoying “no images” tiles coming up. On the two or three closest zoom levels, street numbers are superimposed on the imagery which is quite helpful. Detail is very nice, you can almost make out every individual tile on the Cathedral roof!
The square in exquisite detail
The images for Christchurch appear to be from March this year — on Cathedral Square you can see the ‘rainbow’ flower display they arranged for the Ellerslie Flower Show, and over at Hagley Park you can see the event being either erected or dismantled – not sure which.
They certainly picked a nice day for it – Christchurch looks glorious, bathed in Sun and much more cheerful than the old imagery made it look, as does Wellington. Auckland imagery has not yet been updated as far as I can tell – I am still seeing the same blurry images as before and get the ‘no images’ message when I try to zoom right in. Presumably they are still waiting for a nice sunny day up there!
The Beehive with its newly installed Google Pinpoint
Anyway props to Google for continuing to invest in New Zealand – StreetView and Maps are fantastic tools that are not only genuinely useful, but also makes using our favourite gadget that much more fun!
Has your town also been updated? Let us know in the comments if you’re outside Christchurch / Wellington and can see your place in more pixels than ever before!
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- Extreme Closeup
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- The square in exquisite detail
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- The Beehive with its newly installed Google Pinpoint
Auckland’s North Shore has had this sort of resolution for some time thanks to the council providing their images to Google.
(c709689 has made 1 comment)
Yeah forgot to mention in Wellington. But still it is a start
(bush1e has made 11 comments)
I just noticed this morning that there are now bus times and routes in google maps on iPhone. Is this new or always there because it is the first time I have seen it? But still pretty good
keep up the good work iphonewzealand
(bush1e has made 11 comments)
Nice find bush1e! Sadly only seems to be for Wellington though?
Hamilton is looking quite good too
(psychrn has made 131 comments)
Could they pls update Lower Hutt. It's just 1 small section pls Google.
(Erhardt has made 1 comment)
Tauranga has been updated after years too!
(nzlotrfan has made 22 comments)