TrailTreks: NZ Topo Maps

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kobiak

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#324841 2-Jun-2026 09:18

Building TrailTreks: NZ Topo Maps

Not sure why it took me a year to post this here, but better late than never!

I know plenty of geekzoners share my love of the outdoors — hiking, mountaineering, climbing, mountain biking, hunting, fishing, camping, offroad adventures, you name it. At the end of 2022, I made the move to the mecca of outdoor activities: the South Island. My ambitions scaled up fast, and I quickly found myself juggling two or three different apps just to plan and navigate my adventures. The frustrations were consistent across all of them — ads, paywalls, bloated feature sets, and UX that just didn't feel right.

So I decided to build my own.

The Original Goal

All I wanted was something simple: official LINZ topographic maps, auto-caching of tiles for offline use, and an app that was fast, reliable, free, no ads and no-nonsense. I built it, installed it on my Android, and tested it across a few multi-day hikes. It worked exactly as I'd hoped.

It Spread

A few mates wanted in, so I had them sideload it — worked a treat. Then came the requests. Suddenly everyone had ideas for what would make it "perfect" for their use case: GPX track imports, DOC tracks, huts and campsites on the map, and weather updates (that last one was my own request too, honestly). It had become a proper thing, so I decided to do a real release on the Android store. Beta tested, released — success!

Growing Pains and Going Cross-Platform

More users meant more feedback, more bug fixes, and a genuine side project to chip away at on evenings when the mood struck. Then the iPhone users started asking. The Apple developer annual fee was a sticking point — hard to justify for a free app — but eventually I gave in. The iOS version dropped in the last quarter of last year.

Where It's At Now

The feature set has come a long way:

Weather forecasts for high peaks, and for each DOC hut, campsite, and track
Full offline support once data is fetched
Offline MBTiles packs for the North and South Islands (raster) and all of NZ (vector)
Hillshading and a range of optional layers (these don't cache offline yet to save space, though that may come)
Cloud sync for saved tracks and markers via Google/Apple ID login, backed by Firebase
Live track recording
Search across tracks, places, coordinates, and more
Accessibility-friendly design

There're no many users (around 240+ on Android and 200+ on iOS), but it's growing.

Give it a go, let me know what you think:

android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nz.trailtreks.app&hl=en_NZ

ios: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/trailtreks-nz-topo-maps/id6753130686

And it's still completely free, with no ads and no plans to change that.

helping others at evgenyk.nz

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#3499303 2-Jun-2026 09:26

Amazing. Where was this app back in 1998 when I was trying to find a DOC cabin using paper maps, a compass and a GPS that only showed the coordinates?

Oh, right, also only an old Nokia CDMA dumbphone, with no coverage beyond the main cities.

Well done, what a cool project.

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freitasm

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#3499306 2-Jun-2026 09:27

Also, +1 install now.

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kobiak

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#3499310 2-Jun-2026 09:35

freitasm:

Amazing. Where was this app back in 1998 when I was trying to find a DOC cabin using paper maps, a compass and a GPS that only showed the coordinates?

Oh, right, also only an old Nokia CDMA dumbphone, with no coverage beyond the main cities.

Well done, what a cool project.

Some old folks I met on the tracks still refuse to digitise their outdoor experience to keep it old-school... but than they keep asking "how long left to the hut/camp/river/summit" :D

Thanks @freitasm

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scottjpalmer

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#3499365 2-Jun-2026 09:53

First impression: Slick!

Thanks!

michaelmurfy

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#3499374 2-Jun-2026 10:09

Very slick app!

I showed this to my colleague who goes hunting and mountain biking quite often and he really liked it. Only thing he mentioned is you can't zoom in far but was otherwise super chuffed there is now a free alternative.

Well done!

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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MikeAqua

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#3499434 2-Jun-2026 10:21

freitasm:

Amazing. Where was this app back in 1998 when I was trying to find a DOC cabin using paper maps, a compass and a GPS that only showed the coordinates?

Oh, right, also only an old Nokia CDMA dumbphone, with no coverage beyond the main cities.

Well done, what a cool project.

Been there. A hut I used to stay in, in the Wainakarua forest, was a few hundred metres from its mapped position. My first time there, we arrived around dusk and tried to position ourselves using the compass and skyline features. PITA. Ended up fly-camping and didn't find the hut until the next day.

Mike

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MikeAqua

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#3499438 2-Jun-2026 10:35

Really cool looking app.

I've been using New Zealand Top Maps for about 10 years. It was not free. OK-ish but clunky - very slow to load maps from wifi/data if you haven't cached it.

I've just downloaded yours. Much better. Will give it a try next time I'm out.

Have you thought about setting up a donate type link?

Mike

Senecio

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#3499442 2-Jun-2026 10:38

Awesome app, thanks for sharing it.

I've been looking a a few different Topo map apps but they all seem to have something missing that another one has so hard to commit to and purchase just one of them. Awesome that this is available for free but if you do choose to monetise it then I'd have no problem paying a reasonable fee for an app of this quality.

I'm still exploring that capabilities so apologise if this is a silly question but can you export a track as a GPX file? I see that you can share a track which provides a link but it would be awesome to export a GPX to be imported into Garmin Connect for example to be loaded on to my watch.

outdoorsnz

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#3499446 2-Jun-2026 10:46

Awesome! I've been using google fit and after noticing last few tracked walks distance changed post walk (lost few km's), was thinking time for something new.

So this ticks all the boxes, and looking forward to getting into the hills to test. Thanks for your hard work.

kobiak

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#3499447 2-Jun-2026 10:46

Thanks for feedback guys, really appreciated

MikeAqua:

Have you thought about setting up a donate type link?

Yeah thought about it. But I want to make sure app is 99.99% bulletproof before asking people for donation. And it might actually violate store's policies, need to check that.

Senecio:

I'm still exploring that capabilities so apologise if this is a silly question but can you export a track as a GPX file? I see that you can share a track which provides a link but it would be awesome to export a GPX to be imported into Garmin Connect for example to be loaded on to my watch.

No, currently no export saved/fetched tracks, but can easy add this :)

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Mattnzl

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#3499448 2-Jun-2026 10:50

Thank you! Good to have another NZ based alternative.

I'm heavily into the free https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nz.ianrnz.AMapViewer&hl=en_NZ from another good NZ bloke Ian, but keen to compare.

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Senecio

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#3499458 2-Jun-2026 11:19

kobiak:

Thanks for feedback guys, really appreciated

Yeah thought about it. But I want to make sure app is 99.99% bulletproof before asking people for donation. And it might actually violate store's policies, need to check that.

Senecio:

I'm still exploring that capabilities so apologise if this is a silly question but can you export a track as a GPX file? I see that you can share a track which provides a link but it would be awesome to export a GPX to be imported into Garmin Connect for example to be loaded on to my watch.

No, currently no export saved/fetched tracks, but can easy add this :)

Obviously check the store policy to avoid any violations but if you had a way that we could support that might also help you get to where you want to be quicker then do let us know. And yeah, exporting a GPX would be the icing on top. Happy to do some beta testing for you if you are able to include it.

amanzi

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#3499459 2-Jun-2026 11:21

This looks great. But my only feedback is that it shouldn't be free! Ages ago, I paid for the North and South Island versions of the Topo Map app, and I'd be happy to pay for your app too.

roobarb

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#3499481 2-Jun-2026 13:13

If you want a comparison of user's expectations, see Te Araroa's The Trail App which is free. While it is focussed on the official route it does cover the entire country including Stewart Island, works offline and zooms in and out well.

maoriboy

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#3499938 3-Jun-2026 16:11

Cool looking app. Will have more of play with it when I get home. I use the NZTopo50 maps and they are definitely clunky and slow to load at times so it'll be good to have an alternative.

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