Terrain · Select a property, draw a box or polygon, or upload a boundary

Contour map for any New Zealand property

Make a contour map for any New Zealand property from the LINZ LiDAR elevation model, at any interval from 0.5 m upward, clipped to the title boundary. Contours for AutoCAD and Civil 3D export as DXF; the same lines export as GeoJSON, Shapefile, KML, SVG and a print-ready PDF.

The 20 m contours on the Topo50 map are too coarse for a driveway, a platform or a drainage plan. A property contour plan at 0.5 m or 1 m shows the ground at the scale those jobs need, in the format your designer already uses.

Contour Lines on Mt Iron, Wānaka. The walkthrough below shows how this was made.

Free to run · pay to download

See the full result on the map free, with no account. Download the contours as GeoJSON and KML here, or as DXF, Shapefile, SVG and PDF from Download Data with a pass: NZ$49 for 7 days or NZ$299 for 12 months, one-off, GST included, not a subscription. Every download on the site is included while the pass lasts.

Open Contour Lines on the map →Pass prices and what’s included

Who uses this

Architects and designers. Drop site contours into CAD for concept design.
Landscapers. Plan levels, paths, retaining and planting from real contours.
Owners and builders. Understand the fall across a section before talking to a surveyor.

When to use it

You need site contours for a concept plan, a driveway, drainage or a landscape design.
You want contours snapped to a property boundary instead of a whole map sheet.
The 20 m contours on the topographic map are too coarse for the question.

Which tool for your job

Contour Lines 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 earthworks, driveways and tracks

How much digging, and can a driveway or farm track make the grade?

1.Cut & Fill — Cut and fill volumes to level a pad, at a height you set or the one that balances.
2.Elevation Profile — Gradient along a proposed driveway, section by section.
3.Route Explorer — Finds a line between two points that stays under a maximum grade.
4.Contour Lines (this tool) — Site contours at 0.5 m or finer to hand to a designer.
5.Compare Quotes — Gets the digging priced by up to 3 local earthworks contractors without ringing around.

If you’re working on plans, cad, gis and 3d printing

I need the terrain as a file.

1.Data Here — Which LiDAR, coastal and aerial photo surveys cover a spot, and when each was flown.
2.Download Data — Contours, a GeoTIFF elevation model, a 3D DXF or LandXML ground surface, or a 3D mesh for printing.
3.Contour Lines (this tool) — Contours previewed on the map before you export them.
4.Elevate a File — Adds ground elevation to your own GPX, KML, GeoJSON or CSV points.
5.Point Elevation — Spot heights at the points you click, for a floor level or a tank, or on a grid across a section, to download.
6.Terrain Stats — The highest, lowest and mean ground height of an area, and how the land is spread between them.

How to use it

Select a property, draw an area or upload a boundary.
Choose the contour interval. Finer intervals mean more lines and a bigger file.
Generate. Contours appear on the map with height labels you can toggle.
Pick an export format and download.

Step by step: Mt Iron, Wānaka

We draw 10 m contours over the eastern face of Mt Iron and the houses below it.

1.Frame the area and tap Analyse this view, or select a property. Here the box is 1.2 × 0.8 km. Pick the interval; 10 m suits a whole hillside, 0.5 to 1 m a house site.

2.Preview on Map traces the LINZ elevation tiles. The lines run from 320 m at the foot of the hill to 510 m near the top, coloured by height and labelled.

3.Zoom in and the labels fill in. The lines bunch together on the steep east face and spread out on the gentle ground below. Download as GeoJSON or KML from the panel, or DXF, PDF and more from Download Data.

What it showed

Closely spaced lines are steep ground. The tight band on the east face is where the hill drops to the housing.
For a site plan, select just the section and use a 0.5 m or 1 m interval.

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.

Try it on Mt Iron, Wānaka →

How it works

The LINZ elevation tiles of the bare-earth model are loaded for the area and traced at each contour height. Fragments are stitched into continuous lines, simplified slightly so the files stay usable, and labelled with their height.

The detail follows the size of the area: a building site is traced at the tiles’ finest zoom (cells of about 0.5 m), while larger areas are read at coarser zooms before tracing. Files from Download Data are built on our server from the 1 m LiDAR model and keep full 1 m detail up to 3 km per side.

Reading the results

Closely spaced lines mean steep ground; wide spacing means flat. A closed ring with no lines inside is a knoll or a hollow.

Every export names the LiDAR survey and its licensor, which you must credit if you publish the contours.

Limits and warnings

Areas up to 12 km across.
Contours below about 2 m interval are only meaningful on 1 m LiDAR. On the 8 m fallback they trace interpolation, not ground.
The terrain is a snapshot from the LiDAR capture date. Earthworks since then are not shown.

Compare quotes without ringing around

Contour Lines gives you a fast, indicative answer. When the job needs pricing, designing or signing off, getting quotes usually means calling around and explaining the same site over and over. Instead, run the tool on your site and choose Compare quotes under the result. Describe the job once and we’ll send it to up to 3 local licensed surveyors, with an aerial map of the site, a Google Earth file and your results attached, so they can price it properly from the start. They quote you directly. It’s free and there’s no obligation.

Run Contour Lines on your site →

Data and attribution

Heights come from the LINZ elevation tiles: LINZ’s national bare-earth elevation model (LiDAR where it has been flown, the 8 m model elsewhere), stored in 0.1 m steps, read in your browser at the finest zoom that fits the area: cells of about 0.5 m on a small area, coarser on a larger one. Over the sea the tiles read 0 m; they hold no seabed.

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

Can I get contours as DXF for AutoCAD?

Yes. Generate the contours on the map, then export from Download Data as DXF. Each line carries its height, and the file opens in AutoCAD, Civil 3D and most CAD packages.

What is the finest contour interval?

0.5 m. Intervals under about 2 m are only meaningful where 1 m LiDAR has been flown; elsewhere the elevation tiles hold the 8 m national model. Data Here shows whether a spot has LiDAR.

Are these contours good enough for building consent?

They are good enough for concept design and early conversations. Consent drawings normally need a topographic survey by a licensed surveyor, who may well use the same LiDAR as a base.

Ready to try it?

Open Contour Lines on the map →

Free to use, no account. Runs in your browser on LINZ open data. Downloading the results needs a pass: see prices.

Missing something you need? Suggest a feature or ask about custom work.