Submit New Trail

Thanks for taking the time to add to our ever-growing Trail Directory. Your contributions will help inspire countless other people in their quest to explore the best Kiwi trails around.

Please read the guidelines below. When ready, click the green button below to acknowledge that you have read and understood these. The submission form will then appear on screen - simply fill it out and hit 'Submit' when done.

Note: it can take a while for completed forms to upload so please wait for a confirmation message to appear before closing the window you are working in.

We will review your submission and prepare it for publication. Once it's up on the site you'll be notified by email so you can share your work with the world!

As a VIP member you would receive WT$10 (Wild Things Dollars) redeemable in the shop if your guide is published. Register Now.

Guidelines for new Trail Directory submissions

Please read the following carefully before submitting a new trail guide.

If you are unsure whether or not the route you want to submit is likely to be accepted then please email trails@wildthings.club and either include a Strava activity link or a gpx file.

Route Choice

1. The first and most important question to ask yourself is “will other people really want to run this exact route?”. We want routes that excite, not routes that you run out of necessity.
2. Then ask yourself “is there a purpose to this run?”. Runs that take people somewhere interesting or achieve a goal like a peak or a trig are great. Runs that make a beautiful loop are great. But runs that start or finish at some random point, or which turn around halfway up a hill are not what we’re looking for.
3. Avoid contrived routes i.e. ones that have lots of out & backs (unless they lead to somewhere interesting/have a purpose to them as in points one and two above).
4. Routes need to start and finish in a reasonably accessible place. So runs that start e.g. from a hut that is two hours from the trailhead or finish at a hut requiring an overnight stay are not what we are looking for.
5. Is your run reasonably unique? New routes need to include no more than 50% of trail that is shared with already published Trail Directory runs. If in doubt email us.
6. This is a Directory for trail runners! So make sure your run does not include more than 50% seal and/or gravel road.
7. We only want routes that are at least 50% runnable for a capable, experienced trail runner. If it’s more of a hike than a run for even a mountain goat then it’s not suitable. 
8. We are generally looking for runs that are at least 5 kms long. This is not a hard & fast rule, but if it’s a shorter run then it needs to be something really interesting. Once again, if you’re in any doubt, email us first.
9. Please do NOT submit a route that is a race course unless it is already a popular run outside of the race i.e. a recognised trail route in its own right.
10. Please be guided by the points above, not by what you see in the Trail Directory already. We will be working through the 1,100+ routes we have and re-evaluating them against these criteria, but that will take some time and so some ‘less than ideal’ routes will still be included for the foreseeable future.

Makeup of Run

The types of surface should be reasonably self-explanatory, but to distinguish between the different types of single track please use the following guidelines:

• Technical Single Track = very rooty or rocky, possibly very steep too. It’s the kind of terrain where even the most competent, skilful runners will be forced to slow their pace considerably.
• Moderate Single Track = quite rooty or rocky, possibly quite steep too. It’s the kind of terrain that will disrupt the rhythm of all but the best runners enough to slow them down a bit.
• Easy Single Track = well-made trail with few or no obstacles, on which even the least confident runners can move at full pace. This would include steeper sections if they include well-made steps that take out the technical challenge.

GPX Files

We need clean GPX routes, so if you know yours includes some wee detours from where you got lost en route please email us separately to alert us to this. If your GPX file is too messy or too convoluted we may not be able to use it and your submission will be rejected

Style

Please write your guides in the third person, not the first or second person. Guides should not read as a ‘personal review’ but as a set of instructions for others following in your footsteps. For example, avoid phrases such as “when we did it….” Or “I usually find…” etc etc.

I have read and understand these guidelines