Not sure if anyone else will find it interesting but LINZ has been working on new vector maps to (eventually) replace the NZTopo50 map series.

The advantage is the map files can be a lot smaller to work offline. They're not quite at the same level as the old raster tiles yet but they're getting there.

I've been playing around with bringing them slightly closer with:

• names along features (i.e. a ridge name goes on the ridge, a lake name in the lake).
• blue contour lines on glaciers/snow fields
• lots of other tweaks

because I really like how the topo50 series looks.

topos.nz