cowpatz wrote:FS98 ????????

Ah, yes, the last great sim of the twentieth century...
My memory of the various developments in NZ elevation data is kind of cloudy -- the first major advancement was Christian Stock's 150m and 40m meshes for FS2002 and FS2004? FSX didn't get a useful (as in matching topography features and airport elevations) 20 metre mesh until VLC, and then later Orbx NZ. Of course if you can afford Orbx NZ then that would be the way to go for FSX, but the now free VLC is still a major improvement over default FSX, especially if you are coming from FS98!