Pure naturism Back to South Pacific front page The first place to strip New Zealand has been praised to the stars for its beautiful and unspoilt scenery. It's also been given rave reviews from countless naturists for its endless opportunities to enjoy the nature in nature's garb. So much so that it hardly fits into the scope of this website - a guide to unlikely or wilderness places to go nude. But it's such an enchanted place, and is for me the birthplace of my naturism, I have to join in the chorus of approval and urge other naturists to sample its unspoilt delights. I have at least resisted ever using the phrase Nude Zealand. And there's another very good reason to include New Zealand here: it's just about the only place in the South Pacific where you can actually go naked outdoors within the law. You can apparently go nude on any beach as long as you're not disturbing other people directly. Just go down the shore a little way from other people, and remember to put your shorts on before asking a stranger the time! I put this to the test on a couple of beaches and it seems to be true. No one cared in the slightest, and people walking past just said hello or smiled and walked on. Or they did until one woman stopped and asked if she could borrow a mobile phone - to call the police. I thought she was threatening me, but it turned out a man had been following her and she was scared. I ended up dressing and accompanying her until we could get hold of a policeman. Both of them thanked me repeatedly for 'being a good citizen'. Enough of beaches for now. There are plenty of other places to enjoy nude bathing. A clear day in the Misty Mountains Mount Cook doesn't appear in the Lord of the Rings, as far as I could tell from the film. But the name Misty Mountain is highly appropriate for a peak that is so often cloaked in cloud. Fortunately, when I last visited in March 2002 it took its cloak off, and I quickly followed suit with all my clothes. We had gone on a walk up to the Hooker glacier, which runs down from the base of Mt Cook, and after an hour and a half in the sun we were hot and sweaty. The glacier melts into a large, murky lake, where we stopped to admire the view. There were a few other walkers about, but we walked on a bit, up to a quiet area near some icebergs, and I stripped off. As I always say, the trick to going nude in the wilderness is simply to act as naturally and as comfortably as possible. Don't look around to see if anyone's watching, don't be in the least bit furtive. People pick up your attitude and reflect it back. And so I gritted my teeth and waded into the lake as quickly as I could on the rocky floor. It's the first time I've ever swum in water with ice cubes in it, and it could only have been 5C at most. I plunged in as soon as I could, swimming with short cramped strokes to the nearest glacier, which I touched and raced back again, barely able to breathe. My friend told me to pause for a picture, but I could managed one painful second only before I was out and sitting in the sun, my legs and chest burning but tingling with triumph. I wasn't even the only skinny-dipper around that day. We climbed up to the Sealy tarns, a small mountain lake on the side of another valley, and met a very cheerful woman coming down, her hair still wet. "You must go for a swim when you get there! Strip off and dive in - it's wonderful!" she urged us. We next met an American couple looking cheerfully bemused. "You're nearly at the lakes," they told us. "It's lovely up there, one woman just turned up, took all her clothes off and dived in!" But night was soon falling and we had to hurry down again as the temperature plummeted.

Frozen smile: unbearable cold in the Hooker glacier's terminal lake, with Mount Cook as backdrop. This really hurt

Naturally hot springs Among New Zealand's huge diversity of environment, the hot springs and other geothermal wonders are a huge draw to naturist and non-naturist alike. There's a guidebook published in New Zealand which lists hot springs around the country - both ones in the wild and those which have been commercially developed. Its introduction takes care to explain the rules on nudist use: you can do what you want in the wild ones as long as you don't offend any other users. If you get there first and establish a precedent or ask other users if they mind, you won't find yourself in any other form of hot water. There are no commercial springs open for naturist use, apart from facilities in naturist clubs of course. But I did find one where men and women could bathe separately in Japanese-style bath-houses, or put their costumes on and mix outside in some rock pools. I don't normally like single-sex nude bathing places because segregation is contrary to the naturist ethos. But I had the place to myself and could swim luxuriously up and down in the silky hot waters, looking out through the huge floor-to-ceiling window at the native rainforest. The Maruia Springs are about 70km to the west of the more famous - and absolutely non-nude - Hanmer Springs in the South Island and were worth the extra drive for the chance to disrobe and dissolve into the sulphur-tainted pool. I was also urged to try some naked hotwater bathing at Hotwater Beach on the Coromandel by a young woman I met on a popular Auckland naturist beach. At the beach you dig holes in the sand at low tide and if you pick the right spot they fill up with hot water, warmed by a near-extinct thermal patch below. It's next to a small village and very popular. The woman I met said she had stripped off and joined in with the startled-looking Japanese tourists until they were over their shock and nervously taking photographs. A man came over to her and said: "Don't you think you might get arrested?" Meaning, of course, he wanted her to dress. "No. I don't," she replied simply. It didn't sound like my idea of naturist relaxation, and I kept my trunks on for the duration, but I guess it shows what you can do if you're determined.

Testing the waters: a Japanese-style bath-house at Maruia Springs provides single-sex nude bathing

Southern exposure I stood naked in the blustery winds on a rain-wet rock, peering dubiously into the black waters of the Patterson Inlet and braced myself for a dive. It was cold in the strong breeze, but the water looked colder still. But this was the culmination of a dream since early adulthood and I was determined to realise it. Ever since my first visit to New Zealand at 18, in 1987, I'd longed to visit Stewart Island. It looked to me like the full stop at the bottom of the South Island's long, straight exclamation mark. As such, it would make my exploration of the extraordinary country feel complete. It would also be the location of my most complete naturist experience in the wilderness, a naked encounter with the most distant outcrop of habitable land from the shores of the UK. Eleven years after my first visit to the New Zealand, I was back with a long-standing naturist girlfriend and another couple of friends. We'd determined to go to Stewart Island for a few days, and hired an old wooden house in the small settlement at Halfmoon Bay, overhung with trees from the dense, bird-laden rainforest. If you want wilderness and solitude, and don't mind rain, this place was made for you.

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