Maps with New Zealand

New Zealand is often omitted from maps of the world. A fact which has inspired the subreddit Maps Without New Zealand and the Tumblr page World Maps Without New Zealand, both of which collect examples of maps that don't include New Zealand.

One reason that New Zealand is often omitted from world maps is that lots of them are centered on or near the Greenwich meridian, which means in most map projections New Zealand is shown as a small landmass in the bottom right-hand corner of the map. New Zealand can therefore be very easily cropped off the map by careless editors. 

The best way to ensure that New Zealand is not cropped off the world map is to ensure that it is used as the center point of all map projections. This is very easy to achieve using Engaging Data's Country Centered Map Projections tool.

World maps centered on New Zealand

Using Engaging Data's tool you can simply click on New Zealand to place it at the center of the world map. You can even select from a number of different map projections (Orthographic, Mercator, Mollweide, Equirectangular or Gall Peters) to see how that affects New Zealand's prominence in the world.

Another way to place New Zealand at the center of the world map is by using Mercator: Extreme. Mercator: Extreme is an interactive map which can create a Mercator projection of the Earth using any selected location as the North Pole. Mercator: Extreme even allows you to view your new New Zealand 'north pole' map using a number of different map layers, including a satellite view layer. 

Of course both Mercator: Extreme and Country Centered Map Projections are not restricted to maps centered on New Zealand. You can center either tool on any location in the world. Both map tools can therefore be used to explore how maps distort our view of the Earth, depending on where they are centered and depending on which map projection they use.