Hydrographic data

The work Toitū Te Whenua does producing hydrographic data and nautical charts covers New Zealand’s area of responsibility. This includes the coastal waters around New Zealand, and parts of both Antarctica and the south-west Pacific.

The New Zealand Hydrographic Authority (NZHA) is responsible for this work.

Data available through the LINZ Data Service

Toitū Te Whenua produces official nautical charts to aid safe navigation in New Zealand waters, parts of Antarctica, and parts of the south-west Pacific.

Hydrographic data is available in its raw form through the LINZ Data Service (LDS). This data is based on official Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) published by Toitū Te Whenua. Tide station locations and bathymetric/scanned sounding sheet indexes are also available through LDS.

Note: Data made available through the LDS does not replace official navigational charts, as it is not updated as regularly as the Notices to Mariners updates. Data from LDS should not be used for navigation. For navigation, mariners should use official New Zealand Charts as available from chart retailers and official ENCs.

View Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs)

Chart vector data

ENCs are specifically designed for use in electronic navigational systems on ships. The New Zealand Hydrographic Authority is responsible for creating and maintaining the official set of ENCs for New Zealand, south-west Pacific, and Antarctic waters.

Prior to being loaded onto the LDS, the S-57 data from these ENCs is converted to shapefile format. It should be noted that, due to the translation process, some characteristics of the S-57 data may not convert correctly to shapefile format. This data is updated on a 6-monthly basis.

Chart geotiffs

LINZ charts are used to generate georeferenced geotiffs for publication on the LDS. These are published alongside an index of charts and their locations on a WGS84 Datum. These images are updated on a 6-monthly basis.

Individual georeferenced chart images are available for download from the LDS. If you’re not sure what chart you need, you can first search our online chart catalogue. If you are a regular customer, you can download and visualise the chart index in your GIS system.

You can also embed hydrographic charts into your web, mobile or GIS application using the Toitū Te Whenua map services.

• NZ Chart Catalogue Spatial View
• NZ Chart Catalogue List View
• Download individual hydrographic chart images from LDS
• Download collections of hydrographic chart images grouped by region
• Map services for hydrographic charts

Bathymetric Data Indexes

Toitū Te Whenua is committed to share its bathymetric data – data about the depth of the ocean floor.

Through the LDS, we’ve shared a collection of indexes that show what bathymetric data we hold. You can use this to assess the suitability of the data for your needs and submit a request for what you need.

These indexes have been compiled from information sourced from our hydrographic and bathymetric databases, and georeferenced images. These indexes refer to our bathymetric datasets and will be updated as new data is received.

The majority of our bathymetric data is available as georeferenced TIFF images of the original hard copy sounding sheets.

Data collected after 2000 is often available as both georeferenced TIFF images and digital data files. These data files may be available in several forms, including dense point clouds, thinned point clouds, or a 3-dimensional surface model.

Note: The LDS does not hold bathymetric data, but instead provides indexes to enable discoverability of bathymetric data. All requests for data must be made by emailing hydro@linz.govt.nz

Access bathymetric data indexes

Tide stations

Tide stations are locations around New Zealand and its waters at which sea level measurements are (or previously were) made. Information about these tide stations and their location can be found on the LDS.

Toitū Te Whenua publishes official tide predictions and sea level information through the annual New Zealand Nautical Almanac. Predictions for tides and tidal streams are also made available in CSV and PDF format.

Sea level data for selected tide stations can be downloaded from the Toitū Te Whenua website.

• New Zealand Nautical Almanac
• View tide predictions
• Download sea level data
• Tide station index

Marine Geospatial Information

Many New Zealand organisations collect and store marine geospatial information (MGI). The Toitū Te Whenua website provides links to New Zealand’s MGI data portals to increase the findability and accessibility of MGI.

Finding and accessing MGI