GPS units????

Have a look at a Garmin Map60C as well. It is a small unit, nice bright screen, great battery life, waterproof, etc. And I do use mine for bushwalking to log tracks when its not mounted in the car. Nothing against Magellans just like the Garmins.

I think you should give Johnny Appleseed GPS in Brisbane a call. They are always very helpfull and can give you the pros and cons of all of the types etc..
I did and ended up with a Garmin GPS Map 60C It is handheld, color, day/night readable, water proof can be used for turn by tunr street navigation (not voice but beeps and on screen directions) and can also e used for marine and/or cross country navigatio all in a compact unti just a little fatter than a mobile phone.. There is now a Garmin GPS 60 CS which has a built in compas (only usefull if you are standing still and want to know what direction it is pointing in, otherwaise any other GPS can tell you which directio nyou are moving in) and it also has a removable memory card..
Good luck.. I jave mine mountedonthe dash and is excellent, then when I want to go walkabout I can easily just pick it up and the batteries kick in straight away and off I go..

I think you should try calling Johnny appleseed GPS in Brisbane.. (just Google search and they will stick out) They are gresat.. you can tell them what it is you want to do and they can walk you through the pro's/cons of eachbrand/type etc.

FWIW, I bought a Garmin GPS MAP 60C.. It has a color display, backlight for night, battery/car power, can be used for street Nav/ marine Nav/ Cross country Nav. It's water proof, rugged and only a bit larger than your mobile phone. I have mine mounted on the dash for street nav, then when I go croass country it works just as well and I can unplug it from the car in 1/2 a second and go on foot. there is even now topo maps for it, albeit a rather large and usless scale for foot navigation but they are getting better and better.

Garmin now also has the GPS MAP 60CS which has a compass built in so you can tell which way it's pointing when you are standing still (without this you must be moving to be told direction) - I still haven't worked out why you would really need this feature. it's not like it has sighting cross hairs so you could shoot a bearing to a feature or something.. just saves you from taking 2 steps in the worng directio becuase as soon as you move any other GPSwill be able to tel lyou wich way you are going.. It also has a removable meory card.

Good luck

what ever you get make sure you get UTM ....if your like me you cant understand...(well dont want to) longitude and latitude ...a lot easier using utm with a map

If you definitely DON't want the large screen of an XL then look to the Garmin (map60 Cx)...

I can't recommend Magellan anymore due to their lack of customer support!!

While the explorist is a good GPS, and you may enjoy it for years....Magellans current mentality towards customers that purchased a GPS only 6 months (or so) ago...is..... well..... bad luck!....now you don't get anymore map updates!!

The Meridian series was still a supported model up till about Dec-Jan, then they decided that as of Dec2005, it isn't going to be supported any more.....(with many thousand out in the wild!!)

Now NextDestination sell newly released maps (of NZ and Marine Charts) only for the explorist!

What's to say they don't suddenly decide that the explorist is suddenly no longer supported (as of Jul2006!!) and they decide it's time for people to upgrade to the next model????

Magellan? steer clear of them ;)

ps. I was once a Magellan fanboi!......not any more! **mad**

I'd go the Magellan Meridian series, they are getting cheaper & are still a great unit, the only thing that has changed is bells & whistles in newer models, they all give you the same result, GPS technology has not changed in more than 10 years

Although I have only Garmin experience, they seem to be a great unit. I bought a gps76 a number of years ago before the gps 76 came out - which has 8 times the memory and is a better unit. The best thing I can say about my unit is that it still works. I live in the tropics, it can spends days mounted on the dash of the boat or the car, waterproof AND floats - I use it a lot in the water for crab pots etc, and its no good having a gps working hapily in a few metres of water where you can't get it back.

Basically I treat it badly and it still works, and I'm really good at breaking things!

Cheers Andrew