Afghani refugee brothers embrace Aotearoa's outdoors as they gear up for second Ring of Fire trail run

Since arriving as refugees from Afghanistan three years ago, the Nazari brothers have explored New Zealand one running trail at a time.

The trio of Abdul, Murtaza and Mujtaba are preparing for the second annual Ring of Fire race in March, seeing competitors traverse right around the base of Mt Ruapehu.

Fleeing Kabul three years ago, the family of eight settled in Hamilton, where they would meet Campbell Furlong, who introduced them to the many trail runs New Zealand has to offer.

"I took them up the Hakramatas in Ngaruawahia and that was like two and a half years ago," Furlong told 1 NEWS.

"We've been running ever since."

The trio of brothers had never even been trail running in their homeland, with the Kabul trails far too dangerous to traverse.

"All the mountains in Afghanistan are not safe," Abdul Nazari said.

"They have lots of mine, you don't know where."

Naturally, New Zealand's scenery makes for a much different feel than Afghanistan, however Ruapehu sees Abdul feel at least a little closer to home.

"We suddenly looked across and we saw him just sitting up on this rock just looking out," Forlong said.

"It was one of those surreal moments and afterwards I was saying what was going on there and he says 'oh this is just like home.'"