KRAI

A PERSONAL ARCHIVE OF NEW ZEALAND TRAILS

↓
ABOUT THE PROJECT

What KRAI is

KRAI is an archive of New Zealand trails. It gathers the routes I have walked over a few years of living in the country. There are more than forty of them now, from easy walks to long alpine routes on both islands.

The name KRAI comes from the Russian word "krai", meaning "edge". New Zealand is often seen as the edge of the world, and to me that feeling captures its character exactly. It also points back to my home region, Primorsky Krai, where that same sense of the edge of the world was always close by.

40+ routes walked
10 reports published
years in New Zealand
ON THE SITE

What you can find here

01

Detailed trip reports

A description of the route, how to get there, where to park, what to bring, and what to plan for.

02

Photos from the trails

Years of hiking have left a lot of shots, mine and my wife’s. I want to share them and show the places worth stopping for with a camera.

03

GPX tracks and maps

An interactive map with an elevation profile and points of interest. Some tracks are recorded personally, some are taken from open sources and checked on the ground.

04

Practical information

Elevation gain, time on the trail, seasonal notes, and track conditions.

05

Subjective impressions

Not dry facts but a personal take on the route: what I liked, what I did not, and whether it is worth going at all.

06

Hazards and warnings

Current Department of Conservation data, tricky sections, and weather risks.

ARCHIVE

All trails

From short walks to little-known trails on the South and North Islands

SEE ALL TRAILS →
THE AUTHOR
AUTHOR

Hi, my name
is Leonid.

I have lived in New Zealand since 2023. First it was Auckland, and in 2026 I moved to Queenstown, a town where the mountains, lakes, and trails start right outside the door. Now almost all of my free time goes to nature and hiking. Over that time I have built up more than forty walked routes, from short coastal strolls to little-known alpine trails.

I had written trip and travel reports before, but over time it became clear that the usual online editors were too limiting for the format I had in mind. I wanted more freedom: in the text, in the photos, and in how it all comes together into one story.

I had gathered a lot of photos, route descriptions, and stories that I did not want to just keep to myself. Along the way I looked at other resources: most were either dry reference guides or weak on visuals. There is almost nothing detailed and well presented about hiking in New Zealand, especially in Russian.

At some point this came together into the idea of making my own site. That is how KRAI appeared, a project I built from scratch and wrote entirely myself. Claude and ChatGPT helped along the way with code and technical decisions, but the core is my routes, my experience, and everything I have walked myself over these years.

[email protected]

Questions
or suggestions?

Reach out on any channel, I reply.

INSTAGRAM → TELEGRAM → [email protected]