Jon Hargest

A photograph taken by Evening Post photographer Jon Hargest shows a Department of Survey and Land Information surveyor checking GPS equipment on a Wellington hilltop. The receiver equipment occupies a substantial case, with the antenna mounted separately on a tripod. It looks nothing like something that would disappear into a jacket pocket. The photograph leaves the receiver model unidentified and comes from a different event than the 1986 Fiordland survey, but it captures the physical character of late-1980s GPS well: specialised field equipment operated by people who knew what they were doing.