Lines · Draw or tap out a line
Measure distance on a map of New Zealand
Measure distance on a map of New Zealand by tapping out a line, corner by corner, over aerial imagery. The length appears instantly.
It is the plan distance. On steep ground the fence you buy is longer; draw the same line with Elevation Profile to get the climb.
Free to run · pay to download
Free to run, and free to save as a PNG image of the map. This tool has no file export of its own. For the terrain as a file, Download Data exports contours, a GeoTIFF or a 3D mesh with a pass: NZ$49 for 7 days or NZ$299 for 12 months.
Who uses this
- Farmers and owners. Price a fence, a hedge or a pipe run before pacing it out.
When to use it
- A quick length for a fence line, a pipe run, a hedge or a boundary before you pace it out.
- Checking how far apart two places are without the terrain getting in the way.
Which tool for your job
Measure is one step in a bigger question. These are the jobs it helps with, and the tools that go with it.
If you’re working on walks, runs and rides
How much climbing, and how far?
- 1.Elevation Profile — Distance, total climb and descent, and the steep sections.
- 2.Elevate a File — Replaces the noisy altitude in a GPX from a watch or phone with LiDAR ground height.
- 3.Measure (this tool) — A quick flat distance between points.
How to use it
- Open Measure and tap out the line, corner by corner. Undo removes the last point.
- Choose Done. The panel shows the total length and how many points the line has.
- Draw new line to start again.
Step by step: Mt Iron, Wānaka
We measure the same line from the foot of Mt Iron to the top.
What it showed
- Measure is flat distance only. For climb and gradient, draw the same line in Elevation Profile.
Screenshots from NZ Elevation Tools. Aerial imagery from LINZ Basemaps. Sourced from the LINZ Data Service and licensed by Environment Southland, Otago Regional Council and Queenstown-Lakes District Council for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
How it works
The length is computed on the earth's surface between each pair of corners and added up. No elevation is read, which is why the result is instant and works anywhere on the map.
Reading the results
This is the plan distance, as a map or a site plan would show it. On steep ground the distance you walk or the fence you buy is longer: about 6 % more on a 20 degree slope and about 15 % more on 30 degrees.
For the climb along the same line, and the gradient of each section, draw it with Elevation Profile instead.
Limits and warnings
- Flat distance only. It does not follow the rise and fall of the ground.
- Accurate to where you tap. Zoom in for corners that matter.
Data and attribution
Results come from the LINZ national 1 m LiDAR bare-earth elevation model, read in your browser, with the national 8 m model filling any gaps. Tools that use the surface model (Sunlight, Viewshed, Object Heights) read the matching LiDAR surface tiles.
Elevation and cadastral data is sourced from the LINZ Data Service and licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Copyright in each LiDAR survey belongs to the body that commissioned it — a regional or district council, Waka Kotahi, NIWA and around thirty others — rather than to LINZ, which hosts and processes the national dataset. Every file exported from this site names the licensors whose surveys cover the area, and anything you publish from those files carries the same attribution requirement. See https://www.linz.govt.nz/products-services/data/licensing-and-using-data/attributing-elevation-or-aerial-imagery-data
Questions
Does it allow for slope?
No. It is flat map distance. On a 20° slope the ground distance is about 6 % longer, on 30° about 15 %.
Ready to try it?
Open Measure on the map →Free to use, no account. Runs in your browser on LINZ open data. Downloading the results needs a pass: see prices.