For centuries humans have used maps to get their bearings. And in recent years they've become very flash and computer-generated.
The work of one cutting edge Wellington company, Geographix, has just featured in the world's largest atlas.
Map-making used to be very two dimensional, involving lots of paper and ink, but nowadays it looks a computer-generated landscape we can enter, move around in, and even climb.
Roger Smith of Geoographix uses computer technology and map-making techniques to make us virtual mountaineers.
“This is pretty much what it would look like on the top of Mount Cook, if you had a cloudless day,” he demonstrates.
This programme's not available to the public yet, but it has very practical applications. Roger's used it to brief trampers and to give a visual briefing to athletes competing in the southern traverse. And it could also be helpful in emergencies.
“So if someone was involved in a rescue and they didn't very good idea of the area, or terrain, it's an ideal usage,” says Roger.
Roger knows the country he maps - he's a geographer, former high country farmer and he flew over the landscape time and again as commercial pilot before he took up map-making.
“We're probably a little different than many in the mapping game in that we are getting deeper and deeper into producing oif print and paper maps and have used this technology to help us do that,” he says.
And it's led to international success. His company made the maps for that just-released atlas of atlases, ‘Earth,’ so heavy it requires two people to carry it.
“The book including the case weighs 35kg,” says Roger.
It's much more than an atlas - it's a time capsule of life on earth in 2008.
Six thousand dollars worth apiece, and a spectacular place for a Wellington map-making company to put its work on the map.
“Oh we’re totally thrilled, I mean when we first got involved we had no idea how big it was going to be,” he says.
For a man whose days are dominated by matters of longitude and latitude the building he works it couldn't be more appropriate.
It's the historic Wellington building where the official time for New Zealand was first set. And the telescope used to do it is still there.
A hundred years later the work might be done with 21st century technology but it's just as practical and down to earth, making it easier for those who struggle with traditional maps to get their bearings.
“It's a very exciting time. New Zealand is just purpose built for mapping - it's got such interesting country,” admits Roger.