Funny thing is that the resolution doesn't always change at what we consider logical places - the town I live in (Waiuku, New Zealand) is split roughly down the

Funny thing is that the resolution doesn't always change at what we consider logical places - the town I live in (Waiuku, New Zealand) is split roughly down the middle with high and low resolution - most likely because of the limited availability of high-resolution data. It can be very frustrating when the area you are interested in is just on the other side of the line... That said, through Land Information New Zealand you can get better aerial detail for free http://www.linz.govt.nz/topography/aerial-images/nzmg-non-geo/apq12/index.aspx http://www.linz.govt.nz/topography/aerial-images/nzmg-non-ge... at a resolution of 2.5m per pixel. I'm not sure if google uses this data or not, I guess it's all due to licensing issues etc...