Inspired by the terrain work of Jamziboy I delved into World Machine and WorldPainter and crafted North Island, the map available for download here. It's 1000x1000 blocks so while it's fairly small there should be plenty of room to build. The valley surrounded by mountains would be a nice place to put together a thriving settlement. The small lake in the upper right corner is lovely too (see the pic).

I built a small house at the point where you should spawn when you load up the map (it's noted in the map picture). All resources have been generated and all animals should spawn for you. There are no sandy beaches but there is some underwater. I used WorldEdit to add a bunch in the area around the house so check there if you need sand.

Feel free to use the map for anything you'd like, servers included. A link back to this page would be great if you do something with it. The download includes a creative and survival version of the island along with the map image.

The map was designed with the Conquest Resource Pack and connected textures in mind. It won't look nearly as good without it. MonsterFisher, the man behind the pack, has pushed Minecraft visuals to new places and you should experience it. The install process can seem like a hassle since you need Optifine to use the connected textures but it's well worth it. (Update) I forgot to thank Lentebriesje for his amazing tree repositories. I used both the fantasy and regular for the map so many thanks to him.

I don't have the hardware to make a video of this (my computer stinks) so if someone wants to make a YouTube clip using the Conquest pack (with connected textures on) I'll happily include it here.

Finally, I want to acknowledge Jamziboy in slightly greater depth. His work with Minecraft is incredible and as of late his work with terrain is mind blowing. I can't hope to reach his level of skill and quality but I've reached the point where playing on regular Minecraft terrain holds no interest for me so I wanted to try my hand at the World Machine to WorldPainter method Jamzi pioneered. I know North Island looks a lot like this work; that's kind of the point. I'm still learning how to use the program and how to work with WorldPainter. I'm aiming to branch out for my next map, perhaps into a desert style map. Let me extend my thanks to Jamziboy for his tireless work, his exceptionally helpful videos, and for inspiring me to work on something I find creatively rewarding. Also a huge thanks to MonsterFisher for his relentless work on the Conquest pack. Again, he's a genius at this stuff and it makes Minecraft a far more interesting and exciting game as far as I'm concerned.