If you’re wearing boots, are you really naked?
It started with an Instagram post. A tramper on Mount Taranaki posted a photo of a fellow hiker. Taken, thankfully, from afar, and, also thankfully, from behind, it showed a man descending the mountain wearing nothing but a backpack, socks and boots. You could almost hear the rasping of pack straps on skin.
I immediately had questions. Is it legal to hit the hills with it all hanging out? Is outdoor nudity common in New Zealand? Can I rock the Emperor’s New Clothes on a Great Walk? Was he wearing sunscreen? The answers: yes, sort of, best you don’t, and hopefully.
I took a poll, and almost every tramper I asked had at least once either encountered a nude traveller while out in the bush, or themselves had undressed al fresco. Reasons varied: a dare, unsightly tan lines, keeping trousers (and undies) dry during river crossings, freedom. I myself gave a pair of tourists an eyeful while rinsing off in a tarn on the Kepler Track. It was a hot day. And it’s hard to go past travel writer Peter de Graaf’s story (read it at ramblings.nz/heaphy-track) about an American who was spotted walking the Heaphy in the altogether. “A lady of about 65… told me she’d been crouching to photograph a diminutive plant just as he strode past, so her face was precisely at The Naked Tramper’s groin level. ‘Good day,’ The Naked Tramper said. ‘It is now,’ she replied.”
A history of textile-free tramping
The Instagrammer speculated that the Taranaki man might be German. I don’t want to lean into any problematic cultural tropes, but I will say this: continental Europe is more comfortable with public nudity than we are. Finland, for example, has an annual Nakukymppi race (translation: “naked tenner”), which involves participants running either 10 kilometres or a full marathon in the buff (women are allowed to wear a top of some sort, because chafing). It’s very popular.
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And it turns out that nude tramping in New Zealand does, or at least did, have a German connection. According to Tramping: A New Zealand History by Shaun Barnett and Chris Maclean, Freikörperkultur, or “free body culture” had a moment in the country’s outdoor community in the early 1930s. Freikörperkultur was a German movement that celebrated body positivity and preached the benefits to physical and psychological health of experiencing nature au naturel. Originally a countercultural movement, it grew in popularity in Weimar Germany and went on to become so mainstream the New York Times called it an “apolitical national pastime”.
Freikörperkultur’s emergence in New Zealand was likely thanks to a student named Ormond Wilson. He had visited Germany while studying at Oxford. In his autobiography, An Outsider Looks Back, he writes that, as well as a set of Bavarian lederhosen, he brought back an appreciation for freeing the body when he came home in 1930. “In getting sun-tanned,” he notes, “even shorts seemed to be an encumbrance.” Kiwi males, he felt, were inhibited when it came to nudity. “Once, however, inhibition was overcome, they could appreciate the ease and freedom when tramping or working, in fine weather, without these hindrances.” He joined the Manawatu Tramping Club and was known to enjoy hiking naked in the Tararuas and at Tongariro National Park. The back cover of his autobiography, An Outsider Looks Back, features a definitely shirtless, and possibly clothe-less, Ormond posing in the high alpine. He really does look happy. (Fun fact: Despite his naked shenanigans, he went on to serve in parliament as an MP in the country’s first Labour government.)
Chris Maclean expands on the topic in Tararua: The Story of a Mountain Range, noting that Ormond inspired other trampers in the region like Morva Williams, her partner Bill Sutch, and Lucy Puckeridge. He recounts how “Morva, Lucy Puckeridge and other friends discarded their clothes as they came down the Orongorongo River on hot days, especially if it was mid-week.” Meanwhile, according to North & South, Morva and Bill helped “spread the gospel of nudity through the Victoria University Tramping Club.”
Another local tramper, John Read, caused an inter-generational ruckus. Chris writes that John “recalls climbing Arete, wearing only a pack and boots, and unexpectedly meeting two senior Tararua Club members on the summit. Their disapproving looks sent him scurrying back down the track to put on his shorts.”
The law on birthday suits
If all of this has piqued your interest, you’re in luck. There is no law in New Zealand prohibiting public nudity. There are laws against obscenity, which is indicated by lewdness or lasciviousness, but just being naked does not qualify as lewd. It is not, however, a clothes-free free-for-all. Legal precedent has set guidelines around where public nudity is acceptable. After the case R v Ceramalus (Court of Appeal, 1996), nudity is allowable where it is “known to occur” or “not uncommon”. A well-patronised nude beach would be fine, the corner of Queen Street and Vulcan Lane in Auckland not so much. As one judge pointed out, it’s about giving other members of the public a choice when it comes to seeing their fellow citizens wearing nothing but a smile.
Wandering starkers on a mountainside is therefore debatable. Obviously not a place where nakedness would be “known to occur” but probably remote enough that the number of people affected would be low. In short, use common sense. Maybe stay off the Great Walks. And bear in mind too that some areas are particularly sacred to mana whenua. In 2017, for example, model and Playboy alum Jaylene Cook got in trouble after posing unclothed (except for a beanie) on the summit of Mount Taranaki. The summit is the sacred head of Taranaki, and, as the academic Dr Dennis Ngāwhare pointed out, “it’s like someone went into St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and took a nude photo.”
Nature’s best
Chris explains in Tararua that, even in its 1930s heyday, naked tramping was never more than a fringe pursuit in Aotearoa. The country’s changeable alpine weather and the proliferation of spiky plants like matagouri may have something to do with that. But we do have a healthy culture of “active naturism”. Case in point: AJ Hackett sites permit nude bungy jumping. (Taking your kit off used to get you a free jump, but apparently so many people were up for it they had to rescind the offer.)
Naturist clubs started to pop up in New Zealand around the same time Ormond and his peers were startling other hikers. In January of 1938, the Manawatu Times reported on a proposed nudist colony at Porirua. “Following close on the announcement that a ‘Sun Group’ had been formed in Auckland, an advertisement appeared on Saturday calling on those interested in the promotion of a ‘Sunshine Club’ … the club was to be open to membership of both sexes, and was to encourage communal sunbathing and outdoor exercise in the simple uniform of the naturist.” The article notes that a similar movement was afoot in Christchurch.
There was, unsurprisingly, a bit of moral panic about the whole thing, and one reader of the Evening Star was inspired to write a poem about the impracticalities of nudism: “But think of going down the street / On days of rain and wind and sleet / Without a stitch, from head to feet! / I’m pretty positive I’d choose / To weaken in my nudist views / And wear (at least) a pair of shoes.”
Today, there are approximately 17 naturist clubs nationwide. These are recreational areas where visitors can enjoy the environment in clothing-optional settings, and a great option for giving an outdoor-focussed nakation a try without going full backcountry. The vibe is active, social, non-judgemental and non-erotic; think barbecues, swimming, boules, mini golf, volleyball, tennis and bush walks. So to speak.
No, not that naked hiking
There’s a meme doing the rounds referencing a “Naked Hiking” trend of a different kind, which seems to be adjacent to “Naked Eating” (raw and wholefoods only, preferably prepared by hand). “Naked hiking apparently means no GPS, no music, no distractions… really wish someone had told me sooner.” You’ve been warned.
LAURA WILLIAMSON
Further reading: Out later this year, the 2026 Canterbury University Tramping Club Tasteful Nude Calendar is a cheeky calendar, made for a cheeky bird, with 100% of proceeds from sales going to the Kea Conservation Trust. Head to cutc.nz to get yours.
IMAGE:
There’s more than one way to get back to nature. PHOTO: Travis Brydon, for the CUTC Tasteful Nude Calendar
