It’s obvious that things have slowed down a little bit lately. This has been due to having to address some unplanned issues elsewhere. Whilst there is room for some regret that the work slows down during these times, it’s fortunate that I have got some leeway with the dates when I originally thought that the map drawing would all be finished by the end of this year. However, it is undeniable that finishing the maps next year will be slower than the past few years. It may well be that the pace is similar to what has been happening for the past few weeks. 

I have finished drawing the maps for the main line all the way to Mokihinui Mine. What has been happening more lately has been adding a few other details here and there such as mining sites and infrastructure. This is still happening slowly and it will take time to finish looking at Ngakawau, Stockton and Millerton as well. 

Software wise the main work of the maps project is still happening with Qgis 313ec55 now built from source on a Debian 9.1 vm which does everything really well with no real issues. I am still experimenting with later builds of 2.99 but there is a memory usage problem with the most recent releases that makes it difficult to draw maps off aerial photos. Fixes can take a while to come through so I am waiting for this to be addressed hopefully soon.