61st NZNF Naturist Festival - Wellington 2012/13

Every year, the NZ Naturist Federation holds an annual rally to coincide with the Annual General Meeting.  The rally runs for 7 days from 28 December to 3 January each year and includes a full sports programme, with trophies fiercely fought for.  In addition, the host club puts on entertainment each day and evening.

In 2012-13 the 61st NZNF Rally will be hosted by Wellington Naturist Club.

Come and celebrate as we farewell the last 'Age of Pisces' and welcome in the 'New Age of Aquarius'. 

We will be looking back at the last Age, celebrating the food, the fashion, the music, and then looking ahead to the New Age of Aquarius. 

The Festival will be a chance to reconnect with old friends, make some new ones, a time to "reboot" and time to imagine what the new era could be like. New Years Eve is going to be a blast. 

Wellington Naturist Club have a dedicated festival committee working on an exciting programme, with plenty of activities during the day and evening - the Programme will be available shortly.

We want to promote a positive awareness of naturism both locally and nationally. As part of "imagining the future" we want to look at where we, as naturists, might be in the future.

For as little as $150 p/person ($140 p/person if paid in full by 31 October 2012) you can treat yourself to a wonderful holiday from 28 December 2012 until 3 January 2013 on the Wellington Naturist Club grounds at Te Marua, Upper Hutt.

Register and pay in full by 31 October 2012 and pay only $140 p/person, plus go into a draw for a free festival.

Click here for a registration form.

- Ken Mercer (Festival Co-ordinator)

gonatural - June Issue #221 out now!

The much anticipated and eagerly awaited June issue of gonatural magazine is now available.


You will love the mix of articles featured with accompanying photographs in this mid-year edition - and all of them are about New Zealand.


Two are from the most southern clubs in New Zealand - in fact Southern Sun is the southern most naturist club in the World! And it’s always great to receive naturist travel articles - The Ozzie Travellers, Skinnydip Tours and ex-pat Ross Reid all bring you their own experiences in New Zealand. 


A weekend with BoP Naturists and the annual Nudie Foodies Sounds Adventure are brought to you by regular writers for gonatural while the Blenheim Sun kindly allowed us to bring you a report on the annual Nude Golf International. There are also articles and photos from recent World Naked Bike Rides in NZ.


You can subscribe online to receive the printed version of this beautiful magazine by mail or if you prefer the digital version this can also be ordered online. The magazine is also available at specialty magazine stores.

We're Social Creatures...!

We are social creatures. But being a social creature doesn't just mean having heaps of friends - it indicates having a reliance on others for many aspects of our lives. For example the food we eat being grown, packaged and distributed by others; the house we live in being built by a raft of tradesmen; and also the things that we're interested in drawing us to seek out others with similar interests. 

Social media connects us with the people around us who are interested in the same things that we are and also the organisations who can provide an avenue for those interests. 

Just as we might communicate with each other in different spoken languages, we each have different preferences of the social networks we engage with. Not everyone is a Facebook user and not everyone "tweets". 

"It's not what you know; It's not who you know; It's who knows you..." - Anonymous 

The NZNF is serious about getting as many people as possible to "know" us and to reach and engage with these people via their preferred media. Our goal is to connect to people in New Zealand and all over the world who are interested in the naturist lifestyle and to promote it extensively.

Currently we engage with people in 4 different avenues apart from this blog:

• Facebook 
• Twitter
• Pinterest 
• Google +

“A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is.” - Scott Cook, Co-founder of Intuit

So engage with us and share us with those interested in similar things. We will keep bringing you naturist news of interest via various social networks, because we are after-all...social creatures.

Summer is going - so what now?

Summer is going, so what now?

Do we just hide away until the temperatures have returned to a level more compatible with the naturist lifestyle? No, definitely not.

There are so many opportunities and ways to continue clothes free activities in winter too - and planning your next naturist escape is just one of them. You could take a trip to a resort in northern Australia, or go even further afield to a naturist location in Europe.

OR you could get adventurous in your own back yard!

Many naturist clubs in New Zealand have regular spa or sauna afternoons/evenings, and lots have themed fancy dress social events - both of which are great ways to socialise, meeting new people, whiling away those winter hours. Then there's always the cheeky mid-winter swim! Check out the list of "what's on" featured on our website.

Those who live near Auckland have the benefit of the Parakai Springs Naturist Night (the 1st and 3rd Friday of each month) or the Palm Springs Hot Pool and Spa Night (the last Saturday of each month) towards Helensville - north-west of the city.

A long weekend or week stay at a club or naturist resort like Katikati Naturist Park or at a B&B like Wai-natur  gives the opportunity for a change of scenery along with comforts like spas or saunas close at hand. Check out the list of locations around New Zealand on our website.

And closer to home, why not work on ways you can create "hot spots" in your own space so that you can enjoy the freedom of wearing no clothes even while the rain is pouring outside? You could cover in a patio or terrace with plastic "curtains" and instal a standing outdoor heater or gas run brazier? The feeling of liberation enjoying the warmth against your skin while outside it's freezing. Make the house super warm and invite friends around for a mid-winter luncheon and games afternoon.

Gardening and doing physical outdoor jobs will keep you warm even on a sunny winter's day - so do it without clothes and it will warm your heart as well.

Whatever you do, the fun is not over. We might have to take it indoors for a while and swap a cold beer and crisp wine for hot chocolate and mulled wine, but there is much you can still do.

Although you can't beat lying on a beach soaking up the sun, that isn't all naturism is about. It's a year round lifestyle - a way of life, a state of being - and we are creative people who can adjust to the conditions. Don't ask "what now?" but "why not!" and dare to be bare - all year!

gonatural - March Issue #220 out now!

A year has gone by since we first published your magazine in full colour. It has been our pleasure to bring you a wide range of stories and photos from naturists, in particular those depicting New Zealand Naturism. Soon it will be time for many of us to travel to warmer climes during the winter months here in search of the endless summer. Take some notes and photos of your overseas trip and email them for publication in gonatural.

New NZNF Communications Officer, Donna Miller is keen to exploit the benefits of the internet using social media and to get clubs ‘on the radar’. News, events and other interesting items will be published on the internet and in gonatural magazine as the gonatural newsletter which was previously sent to clubs will no longer be produced.

Beach nudity invariably makes the headlines during "slow news fortnight" with Ladies Bay in Auckland gaining typical undue media attention and the New Year coverage was no exception. Darrell Turner responded in the NZ Herald (his article is kindly reproduced in this issue) and Free Beaches NZ present the legal summary.

The Bay of Plenty Sun Club recently celebrated fortyfive years of naturism with a reunion of past and present members during Labour Weekend in October. During that same month it was ‘skin only’ for a flock of ‘nudies’ at The Wrinkly Rams Cafe & Winebar in Omarama; later that summer three friends spent two wonderful days of naked rambles in Taranaki.

A year or more in the planning, the 60th annual NZNF Rally A Fairytale Circus was eagerly anticipated by organisers and visitors alike. Sure, those of us who attended will remember it for the wet weather, but more importantly the combination of sporting and fun entertainment events provided by a very large group of volunteers - on holiday - just like the rest of us. The week long rally was a credit to the organisers and the magnificent team of helpers.

Purchase your copy of gonatural to read more interesting articles about New Zealand Naturism.

Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days Of Summer...??

"Boy, it's been a wonderful summer hasn't it!" No, they're not words much heard or associated with the summer we've been having this year! Some regions which usually enjoy many sunshine hours and balmy temperatures have been severely lacking in both of those areas. There's certainly been more of the "crazy" and less of the "lazy hazy" this summer.

However, despite this, recent events planned by naturist organisations and clubs around the country have seen an increased interest and participation in the lifestyle.

Many clubs have had successful visitor/open days over the summer and Free Beaches organised the much publicised "Skinny-dip down a Moonbeam" event on February 8th.

There has been a lot of media attention of various events, especially the February 8th event. Some of it has been negative but Joyce Flemming gave a most wonderful radio interview with Jim Mora on Radio NZ and I also did one on RDU (the Christchurch student/alternative radio station) with both presenters asking intelligent questions and showing their support/tolerance of our lifestyle.

Chris Laidlaw also ran a Haiku competition on his Radio NZ Saturday morning show with the topic of "skinny-dip down a moonbeam" that had a fantastic response and Kevin Sampson of Katikati Naturist Park wrote a wonderful and balanced article on public nakedness that ran in the NZ Herald.

So if you are one of the many whose interest in the naturist lifestyle has been piqued, then visit our our website for links to an organisation or club near you and experience what we call 'social naturism' and more of "those lazy hazy crazy days of summer"...hopefully.

[Photo courtesy of Brian Williams]

The Circus has left Town...

The circus might have left town, but boy was it a blast while it was there.

The Auckland Outdoor Naturist Club hosted the 60th NZNF Rally from December 27th 2011 until January 4th 2012.

The theme was "A Fairytale Circus" and despite adversity from the weather, great effort was made to ensure the rally wasn't a "circus" but a success - and we think they certainly succeeded.

A strong team assisted with the preparation and smooth running of the week long event with a full sports competition and evening entertainment organised for each night.

Among the evening entertainment was a best dressed clown competition, a fairytale ball and a Moulin Rouge evening where everything (and everyone) was decorated in red.

A talented local musician, Russell French, was hired to perform on two of the nights and played a great variety getting everyone up dancing on the wet grass dance floor.

We were also wowed with beautiful and serene performances from three of the Nikau String Quartet on one evening.

There was something to please each of the almost 190 attendees at the rally and ensure all had a great time with the inclement weather having little or no effect to "dampen" the spirit.

Next year the Wellington Naturist Club will host the NZNF Rally and the theme will be "A New Age of Aquarius" - we will keep you updated with details for that throughout the year.