New Zealand gonatural naturist magazine Sept/Oct 2019 #250

NEW ZEALAND

for health and well-being

Life after cancer

Reece and Julie celebrate their new life our 250itohn edit

gonatural.co.nz PUBLISHED SINCE 1956

#250 Sept/Oct 2019 ISSN 2463-4743 NZ $10.50 Aust $11.50 OVS $12.25 Digital NZ$8

Naked young vets • Māori phallus chopped• Wainuiomata walk

Naturist living ~ nudist life ~ naked happiness gonatural

250 September / October 2019

Bronze cast sculpture: ‘Gifts of the Universe’ Artist: Isobel McBeath, Mahara Place, Waikanae PHOTO Michael P Moore gonatural 250 September / October 2019

NEW ZEALAND

for health & well-being

PUBLISHED SINCE 1956

September/October 2019 MAGAZINE OF THE NEW ZEALAND NATURIST FEDERATION INC

“Look up at the stars and not down at your feet.

Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.

And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.

It matters that you don’t just give up.”

-

The magazine for freedom lovers and those who embrace the naturist way of life characterised by the practice of communal nudity with the intention of encouraging self-respect, respect for others and the environment.

The benefits of naturism are wide and varied, from health benefits to therapy; from getting close to nature and the simple pleasures of pure freedom. Let us show you how you and your body can benefit from the lifestyle that is nude recreation - or naturism.

It’s good for your health. Measured sun exposure and vitamin D is very good for you. Naturism is more about doing normal, everyday activities, without the encumbrance of clothing and helps in prevention of many diseases from rickets to some forms of cancer (including melanoma), arthritis, osteoporosis, diabetes, asthma and cardiovascular disease.

Mental health - being naked outdoors on a sunny day isn’t sexual, but it is sensual – a delight to your senses.

Self Esteem - an increase in euphoria, naturism helps to increase confidence and self esteem.

Lifestyle - experience the true ‘freedom’ of exposing your whole body to nature’s elements.

Freedom - gain a sense of freedom when you remove the ‘entrapments of civilisation’.

Recreation and Enjoyment - enjoy sports and many active pursuits.

ON OUR COVER NEW ZEALAND

for health and well-being

Life after cancer

Reece and Julie celebrate their new life our th 250io edit n

gonatural.co.nz PUBLISHED SINCE 1956

#250 Sept/Oct 2019 ISSN 2463-4743 NZ $10.50 Aust $11.50 OVS $12.25 Digital NZ$8

Naked young vets • Māori phallus chopped• Wainuiomata walk

Naturist living ~ nudist life ~ naked happiness gonatural

250 September / October 2019

COVER Reece and Julie Hood at Katikati. PHOTO Michael P Moore BACK COVER Randy Mayer, Peka Peka Beach PHOTO Michael P Moore

Stephen Hawking

from the editor

T

his issue of gonatural magazine marks a milestone - it is our 250th edition! We first went to press in March 1956.

I dedicate this issue to Randy Mayer, 1955-2019. I doubt the founders could have imagined how this journey would have unfolded. As editor, I’m a custodian and facilitator to help share, create and record our stories. In this cluttered and busy digital world, where all kinds of mixed, ill-informed and uneducated messages, often unchallenged, make it to the social media world, it’s more important than ever that we have our own voice to promote and celebrate what makes naturism so healthy.

Our fellowship is very unique. Beyond our wildest dreams, communication has become more transparent in the last 20 years, yet ironically, people have become more and more prudish.

As editor, I relish discovering the extraordinary in the ordinary often in the most unexpected places. Whilst I was a guest at BOP Naturists’ birthday weekend in Katikati, Glenne Findon introduced me to Reece and Julie. She insisted their story would inspire and warm my heart, and our readers, and she was right.

I thank them for allowing us all experience such a special and traumatic journey to recovery and living life to the fullest against immeasurable odds. They’re an inspiration for us all.

The life-blood of any magazine or newsletter is those who make the effort to share their stories, instead of criticise. Like those who hate their government, yet don’t vote. Writing of your own wondrous adventure, that will inspire a new generation, is a gift.

Every experience is an opportunity. I understand that some just want to enjoy their private bubble. However those who have life stories to tell, that will encourage, inspire and help younger folk to try something different, are doing an invaluable service.

Only those who have experienced this amazing feeling can tell others.

F O O R P

-Mike

Michael P Moore editor@gonatural.co.nz

Deadlines #251 December 2019 issue: 1st November Editorial, Photos & Advertising editor@gonatural.co.nz gonatural.co.nz/gonatural-magazine Subscriptions Print or Digital gonatural.co.nz/gonatural-magazine magazine@gonatural.co.nz Tel +64 21 32 1144 PO Box 37375, Halswell, Christchurch, New Zealand 8245 facebook.com/gonaturalMagazine

gonatural

250 September / October 2019

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Letters

NEW ZEALAND

for health & well-being

editor@gonatural.co.nz

MAGAZINE OF THE NEW ZEALAND NATURIST FEDERATION INC Published since 1956

#250 September/October 2019 ISSN 2463-4743

© 2019 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PUBLISHER

New Zealand Naturist Federation Inc EDITOR

Michael P Moore editor@gonatural.co.nz MANAGER

Noel Thomas magazine@gonatural.co.nz GRAPHIC DESIGN

Michael P Moore ADVERTISING

editor@gonatural.co.nz PHOTOGRAPHY

Credited individually PRINTER

Spectrum Print Christchurch, New Zealand CONTACT

PO Box 37375, Halswell, Christchurch, New Zealand 8245 www.gonatural.co.nz THANKS

Andrew Boyd, Peter Woods, Kevin Scarlett, Randy Mayer, Kev O’Connor, Johnathan Kirkpatrick CONTRIBUTORS

Brent Lewis, Cathy Sneyd, Reece Hood, Patrick Fotheringham, Daniel Copeland, Miss Bareall Massey Veterinary School, Soo Kok Hong, Conrad InskipTararua District Council, Horizons Reg. Council, ESPN Body Issue, Constance Gervasi.

Purchase either the print edition via subscription post, or subscribe to the digital edition online.

New Zealand’s national naturist magazine is published quarterly in March, June, September and December, by the New Zealand Naturist Federation Inc. Registered at the Chief Post Office, Wellington, as a magazine.

Complaints against this magazine should be in writing to the editor. This magazine is protected by copyright. No part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photo­graphic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Editor. In our desire to present different points of view, gonatural will publish articles and letters which may not necessarily represent the opinion of the editor nor the policy of the New Zealand Naturist Federation.

deadlines DECEMBER 2019 - 1ST NOVEMBER MARCH 2020 - 15TH JANUARY

2

Congratulations on the photo of young female British travellers at Pohara Beach [Dec 2018 gonatural #247]. It is a marvellous picture, certainly the best depiction of the joys of naturism that I have seen. My only regret is that you did not make your brilliant pic the centrefold which would have made it easier to detach from the magazine and put on my office wall! I write as a lifelong naturist who has belonged to clubs in Britain and America, was an annual visitor to Alexandria Bay in Noosa until the puritan police arrived and been a supporter of the NZNF for 40 years. I do not belong to a club as I am lucky enough to be able to be naked in my garden and at a nearby beach but my partner and I remain paid-up supporters of Free Beaches NZ. Congrats again and keep up the good work.

- David Barber, Waikanae The Taranaki Naturist Club have discussed imbalance of the content, particularly the pictures. These appear to be completely out of balance with obviously many more male and malemale pictures and also with club memberships. It is portraying a very unbalanced view of membership of the Naturist Federation. Potential members who have visited our club and browsed the magazines which are available for everyone, have commented that there is a very one-sided ratio of male to female, especially over the last three years. It has then been asked of our club: what our ratio of male/female is? The last magazine [#249 June 2019] displayed 74 males compared to 23 females, not including advertisements. The naturism logo is “for health and well-being” which the over displayed pics of so many males, does not seem to fit with the logo. We understand that the contents come from what is submitted BUT we are getting alerts that this is NOT what the majority wish to see. We give a shout out to more couples, families and females to submit more material for the magazine but also that the material submitted be censored to a more equal balance.

- Mary Spackman,Taranaki Naturist Club The photos were all highly ranked entries in the photo competition [#249 June 2019], judged by two independent judges, certainly worthy of publication.

Taranaki Naturist Club’s head count of

gonatural 250 September / October 2019

genders...really? How petty can you get?

I don’t think so! My count is a balance or 4 male, 8 female, 6 mixed gender.

They are group photos for goodness sake, to be looked at as a whole. In the past, there have been complaints about the number of photos of females adorning the magazine and centrefold, so it is a nice change to see some blokes instead. What does their gender matter anyhow? Naturist philosophy is acceptance and respect for all. It appears that TNC regard males as unhealthy by their comment “the naturism logo ...displayed over pics of males”.

Although they stop short of mentioning the word ‘gay’, it is implied and object to photos of groups of these men, who look quite healthy to me! Who is a partner of who, is no-one’s business.

Those in the photos could all just be friends! Who says they are gay?

And who cares? But what about the cover (and winning photo) of three ladies, sharing their love of naturism?

It seems that that is OK to have three women in a group photo but not photos of a group of men doing the same thing.

It sounds like TNC think gays are sick, unhealthy who we should all steer clear of! Homophobia and discrimination are still alive and kicking, and here’s me thinking that we had all grown up in New Zealand (especially naturists) and accepted people whatever their gender or sexual orientation. But it appears not, despite the Naturist Federation philosophy which states: Naturism is a lifestyle-choice based on the INF definition: “Naturism is a way of life in harmony with nature, expressed through social nudity, linked to self-respect, tolerance of differing views together with respect for the environment”.

Yes, Taranaki can express their opinion, but not at the expense of the NZNF naturist philosophy. The editor can only use material which is sent in for publication and I can’t remember seeing any articles from TNC for years.

I suggest to them that they should stop throwing stones and if they don’t like the content that is currently being submitted, they should stop moaning and send in some articles themselves.

- Glenne Findon, co-ordinator, BOP Naturists

Inside

Walking Wainuiomata’s water catchment

Letters..................................................... 2 New Zealand and world news................... 4

4

Organ man’s penis envy........................... 6

6

Nudity: The benefits.................................. 8

8

COVER: Life after cancer........................ 10 Walking Wainuiomata.............................. 16

10

Being free and solo................................. 20 Our centerfold ! ..................................... 22

20

Naked vets to the rescue........................ 24 Defending our rights............................... 30

16

Farewell Randy Mayer............................. 34 Miss Bareall writes ................................. 35 Around the country................................. 36

30

NZ Naturist Directory ............................. 44 What’s on? - Calendar............................ 45

24 gonatural

250 September / October 2019

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News

Council candidate advocates topless

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Naked Attraction The UK’s popular Naked Attraction television dating show, has just completed its fifth series since commencing in 2016. In a recent episode, Renee, a 24-year-old accounts clerk from New Zealand, took part in the show. Although she didn’t get selected for the date, she said the experience was ‘wonderful’ and a liberating way to meet new people. The show, hosted by Anna Richardson, received numerous complaints from viewers to the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom in the UK, 504 to TVNZ, and 13 to BSA/Media Council in New Zealand. None were upheld. Complaints were about ‘nudity, sexual discussion and the exploitative nature of the programme’. “The material featured was justified in the context of the programme,” Ofcom said and chose not to investigate. Nothing breached the rules, as it is purely a dating show and did not contain any sexual activity. “We carefully considered complaints about this programme. We found that the material was justified by the context of the programme, which is aimed at an adult audience and attempts to explore the nature of physical attraction. It was scheduled appropriately and clear warnings were given prior to broadcast.”

gonatural 250 September / October 2019

“I have always embodied female sexuality, the power of freedom and absolute autonomy... If you know me personally - you know I live this absolutely and by doing so uphold the right for every woman and human being for that matter - to do the same... There are detractors that pipe up whenever I do anything like this publically and interestingly the biggest detractor of me doing so, is also my biggest imitator...

Nevertheless - I am and will always be original in all I do, powerfully genuine and fearlessly honest in all I stand for, naked in my ambition and passion for all women and people alike to be wholly empowered and respected in their being...

Your body, your life?”

- Teuila Blakely, New ZealandSamoan actress

Instagram.com/teuilablakely

Thomas Morgan, a candidate in the Wellington Council elections, for the Paekawakawa/ Southern Ward, has called for “topless public swimming pools” as part of his campaign. “Topless female sunbathers are a common sight along Oriental Bay, Wellington, and it would be the ideal place to kickstart a movement,” he said. “This rather unusual idea comes from a variety of inspirations in a last-minute rushed profile that needed some kick at the time of writing,” he told gonatural.

“I pitched the policy to stimulate conversation. I hate to say it, but it isn’t important to me personally at all, it just happens to be a useful topic for an election. But the policy itself is genuine. It’s on the extreme end of unpopular, maybe. But I think as an issue, it has some merit.” Morgan says Barcelona recently enforced topless bathing as some type of rule.

“The general concept of equality between the sexes, exemplifying the very wide range of issues that were be raised in the council role,” he said.

“Lastly, a more altruistic inquiry as a form of sociological investigation into what might or might not appeal to the community. We’re all for women’s liberation, so here’s something to chat about. It would require a huge change in mindset. Allowing female nipples to go uncovered in public pools would help to demystify the female body, which is often unfairly sexualised in a way male bodies are not. Everyone’s got different-shaped noses and we don’t cover those up.”

Thomas Morgan got 632 votes, and was not elected to the Council.

Cover your bum!

Federation president Wendy Lowe

Perth’s Adventure World swimming pool has changed it’s swimwear policy.

“People must wear ‘appropriate swimwear’,” they said. “G-strings, bikinis or anything ‘too cheeky’ are not welcome. Let’s not confuse the issue. This update is about dress standards and dress standards only.

It is not gender specific. Adventure World is a family friendly theme park.

We keep informed of industry trends and whilst this was not a decision taken lightly, as a family friendly venue, we feel it is appropriate,” the statement read.

Hilary’s Cleavage too much

Television NZ’s presenter Hillary Barry has received criticism about showing too much cleavage. Seven Sharp cohost Jeremy Wells explained how a viewer had written and complained about Barry's inappropriate attire - she was wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt that had a v-neck. “We are being assailed by more and more of Hilary in low-cut tops exposing her cleavage,” the complainant Barbara wrote. “Unfortunately it’s become a worldwide trend which is mindboggling considering we have the #MeToo movement trying to stop women being treated as sex objects.

It is a fact of nature that women’s breasts are sex objects and should be kept private except at the beach

PaknSave’s playful signs

or at an evening function. Hilary should be seen as a professional, intelligent and have taste - her breasts being accentuated does not give this image,” the viewer said.

Barry responded to the email:“Well here’s the thing Barbara. I’m just a middle-aged mother of two who slapped on some lippy and a pretty top to look presentable for the nation and I’m sorry that you find my boobs offensive. “They’re just boobs and half the population have them.

Barbara has them,” Hilary Barry said and responded to viewers and online trolls about body-shaming remarks on previous occasions.

In February, another viewer criticised Barry’s thighs and asked ‘Who is dressing these people?’ Barry says she is comfortable being in her own body and hoped others were too.

“Let’s be proud of our thighs, hips and bums and bumpy bits. Heaven forbid, they should be seen on TV.”

Following Donna Miller stepping down as president of the New Zealand Naturist Federation earlier this year, I was asked by the executive to take over the role again. Hans van Asperdt resigned as Internet Coordinator and Murray Nash was appointed, a role he has done previously.

At the last Annual General Meeting, Jim Bell became our new Treasurer, and Mark Kennedy was appointed as Merchandise Officer, and Ken Mercer as Sports Coordinator.

In August, I attended Auckland Outdoor Naturist Club’s 70th anniversary celebration - a fantastic event with lots of members and visitors - a party with live band and firework!

It would be difficult to start a club in this day and age finding a suitable property and far more expensive with modern building regulations and compliance. Therefore we must treasure the legacy we have been given by our founders and nurture our clubs for future generations. We have enormous assets and taonga that can still be appreciated 50, 60, 70, 80 years later.

Spring is here and the weather is already starting to improve and it’s getting warmer. Our big marketing opportunity in October was World Naked Gardening Day Downunder. We again partnered with Yates, with a focus on colour and flowers for the bees. I hope most clubs took this opportunity to get involved.

I look forward to meeting all our club representatives at the Hawkes Bay naturist festival and rally this December. It is shaping up to be a great week-long event.

Facebook.com/gonaturalMagazine 4,818 followers news, conversation, comments gonatural

250 September / October 2019

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Organ man’s destructive penis envy PHOTO Horizons Regional Council

CULTURAL CLASH

Māori history is embedded in our childhood consciousness.

New Zealanders learnt from a young age our land was inhabited long before the English arrived on our shores in 1769.

We didn’t get scarred by naked indigenous carvings. Michael P Moore dissects a religious organ man’s bizarre attack.

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gonatural gonatural 250 250 September September/ /October October 2019

H

e helped remove weeds and Wandering Willy from the lush walking tracks in the Manawatu Gorge Reserve, but one day in April, 78-yearold Milton Wainwright removed one willy too many.

If you go down in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise...at the eastern entrance of Te Apiti/ Manawatū Gorge, on the outskirts of Woodville, at the Ballance Bridge entrance, a beautiful Maori carving was unveiled. It is called Te Hononga Maunga and provides safe passage to walkers. In December last year Rangitāne o Tamaki nuiā-Rua kaumātua Manahi Paewai blessed the new entrance and work

by Rangitāne master carver Craig Kawana. “These carvings represent karakia for those who visit,” Manahi Paewai said.

For five years, Woodville’s Milton Wainwright would take the 5km journey to the Gorge and volunteer his time as a guardian, clearing walking tracks of old man’s beard, wandering willy and other noxious weeds. “To my way of thinking, it’s therapy. With the birds singing and meeting friends tramping, it’s the nearest thing you can get to heaven,” the devout Christian said. Then one day in April, he came across something that he believed, also needed removing.

“You go into the bush for a lovely time and you see this thing in your face,” Milton Wainwright said. “And it’s exaggerated. Children grow up knowing there’s male and female, but they when see this, what’s the message? What are you trying to say? The carving disgusted me and promoted sex for pleasure, which has led to the degeneration of society.

When indecent statues are put in public in the name of culture, we have lost our chart and compass,” Wainwright said. He believed the statue’s penis to be obscene and immoral, and wanted to know who authorised it. He wrote to the police, Department of Conservation, marae, and Tararua Council. Mayor Tracey Collis told him not touch the statue.

So on April 16th he attempted to cut off the offending penis with a handsaw, but had no success and returned the following day with his chainsaw.

“When I told the policeman who arrested me... ‘If I went and stood there with nothing on, you’d be coming and arresting me,’ and he said, ‘yeah, that’s right.’ I was carrying out God’s work, I knew I had to deal with it.”

Wainwright believes that other depictions of naked art, like Michelangelo’s statue of David is different. “He’s absolutely naked of course, but he’s an absolute giant, but he’s in a museum and if you don’t want your children to see something like that, or you don’t want to offend someone, you don’t take them to see it. He has all the male genitalia, but it’s all in proper proportion. It’s not exaggerated. It’s a work of art. I understand the offence caused, but stand by it.” His wife Rosalie said he had courage and bravery, and had protected him from the ensuing online abuse. “This was a deliberate and premeditated attack, which you knew would offend a large group of people,” Judge Lance Rowe said. “You have shown cultural and religious ignorance and imposed your moral view on Māori. Your explanation was that you were making an indecent thing decent. You understood the harm this would cause.”

Massey University professor of Maōri visual arts and culture Bob Jahnke said cutting the phallus off Māori carvings was rare but not new.

“It’s upsetting just to hear about it... it’s a symbolic neutering of the whole iwi. This is an unwelcome throwback to the disrespect Māori culture was afforded in the colonial era, when Christian missionaries used to cut the genitalia out of sacred carvings wherever they saw them,” Professor Jahnke said. “There was a sexual explicitness in pre-European carving, and the impact they had when Christianly arrived here in Aotearoa. Marae on the East Coast have emasculated carvings, a result of Christianity’s influence,” he told gonatural magazine. “Wainwright defends the Statue of David because it is in a museum, however it was originally in an open space at the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio, in Florence. Many early carvings had enlarged penile representing procreation, the continuity of generations.

You can find examples of desecrated phalluses

in Auckland museum and Te Papa in Wellington. It’s quite exceptional that this incident would occur in contemporary society. Both male and female figures with genitalia were powerful and significant traditional symbols in carving. They represent an iwi’s mana and the continuation of its whakapapa, every ancestor and every future descendent to ever birth a new generation. These instances of missionary prudery, particularly in Northland, almost led to the loss of an entire traditional carving style. It’s a grave insult to Rangitāne because it was a symbolic neutering of the whole iwi.”

Ironically, Milton Wainwright runs the Woodville Organ Museum with a collection dating back to the 1860s and loves the sacred music that they produce. Fear of nudity or depictions of the naked body, manifests itself in many forms, it may come from a prudish disposition, an embarrassment of one’s own selfimage or from religious doctrine. And of course, if indeed one subscribes to a belief that we are made ‘in God’s image’, and then believe it should be hidden, if not desecrated, it is a bizarre logic, to say the least.

Whilst Wainwright denied a charge of intentional damage for chainsawing the phallus, the judge said he lacked remorse, insight and understanding and was charged with wilful damage, fined $2000 and banned from the walking track for two years. He certainly made himself out to be the biggest dick.

A new carved statue is being created l to replace the one desecrated.

gonatural

Milton Wainwright Woodville organ man 250 September / October 2019

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ADVICE

Nudity: the benefits STORY Constance Gervasi PHOTO Brent Lewis: Cathy Sneyd

First off, let’s be clear what exactly I am talking about. You would be surprised by the number of people who confuse the words naturist and naturalist. And whilst I find natural history and wildlife interesting, I am by no stretch of the imagination a naturalist student or expert.

I am in fact a naturist. Some definitions include: a nudist; a person who practises nudity for reasons of health or religion; a person who goes naked in designated areas; a person who worships nature or natural objects.

But what exactly is naturism? The International Naturist Federation describes naturism as “a way of life in harmony with nature, expressed through social nudity, linked to self-respect, tolerance of differing views together with respect for the environment”. gonatural states on their website that “naturism is the practice of going nude, especially in a mixed social setting and is a lifestyle choice. Another term for it is ‘nude recreation’. It is a feeling of freedom and, for many, social nudity is personally liberating. Through it, we come not only to accept ourselves but others as well”.

You may not realise but there are millions of naturists worldwide.

They represent a cross-section of society from all professions and occupations. Whether they are part of a family, young, old, married, single, have strong religious beliefs or not; naturism is one of the greatest equalisers.

Nude recreation embraces the pure joy of living, To relax and be nude is to let yourself be totally free. It is a great way of unwinding and getting back to basics where you can experience and appreciate nature

in the most natural way possible.

Relaxation, stress relief, positive body image and increasing selfesteem are just a few reasons why people choose this lifestyle.

Naturism has many health benefits, despite negative publicity on the risk of skin cancer, which is caused by sunburn, not sun exposure.

Naturism is more about doing normal, everyday activities, without the encumbrance of clothing. The area of skin covered by a bathing suit doesn’t really make much difference once you are out in the sun. Naturally, most naturists are sensible and take precautions against sun burn and avoid the sun during the heat of the day.

There is however a lot of literature on the benefits of the sun on the body due to the production of Vitamin D. The most natural way to get Vitamin D is by exposing your bare skin to sunlight. Not only does it feel good, it has been documented that the sun is beneficial in the prevention of a large number of diseases from rickets, to some forms of cancer (including melanoma), arthritis, osteoporosis, diabetes, asthma and cardiovascular disease.

As well, researchers are now discovering that Vitamin D plays an important role in mental health and depression. We all know how invigorated we feel by the sun in the summer months compared to the winter months of the rain and cold when SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) hits.

Being naked outdoors on a sunny day isn’t sexual by any means, but it is sensual. Naturism allows us to feel the breeze over the whole body and the cool grass under our feet.

Throw swimming without a bathing suit into the mix and you get a total stimulation of the senses that creates a feeling of well-being.

Along with the increase in euphoria

gonatural 250 250September September/ October / October2019 2019 8 gonatural

created by exposing the body to nature’s elements, naturism helps to increase confidence and self esteem. Once people shed their clothes, they regard each other as equal individuals and pay little attention to life’s status symbols.

The naturist philosophy encourages the acceptance of all people, no matter who they are or what they look like. Many people, especially women, are shy about exposing their bodies initially, whether due to childbirth, surgery or scars from accidents, but they soon realise that their worry was needless.

There are all shapes and sizes, colours and creed in the general populace and the same exists in a naturist environment.

Social nakedness quickly shows that you are accepted for who you are and not what you look like. There is no need to worry about how your body compares with somebody else.

Before long you feel totally comfortable in your own skin and after you have experienced and dispelled all the myths surrounding it, you can live a normal life naked in a safe environment.

Apart from the obvious health benefits, many people join a naturist club to socialise with likeminded people. Most clubs have on-site accommodation or camping facilities. They are like mini resorts that you can visit for a day, a weekend or have an extended relaxed holiday and enjoy facilities like a spa, sauna and swimming pool.

As well as being a social bunch, many naturists are sports minded and they have sports courts for playing socially.

Anything from miniten (a type of tennis), tenniquoits, volleyball, petanque, kubb to indoor sports such as table tennis, darts or pool.

If you are not into sports most clubs have expansive grounds planted

in bush or lovely gardens. You are free to relax and unwind in these peaceful settings or if you like to keep busy you can help out with the gardening.

Naturism is great for children and families. Kids who grow up in a naturist environment have a better understanding and acceptance of all body shapes and sizes and how they develop. Naturism gives children a healthy attitude to people of the opposite sex. They are natural naturists and are usually too busy playing or making new friends to worry about the lack of clothing.

So if you have always been curious about naturism or too shy to give it a go, then I can totally recommend taking the plunge, Why not find out once and for all if naturism is something that would suit you.

All I can say is, don’t knock it until you have tried it.

gonatural gonatural 250 250 September / October 2019 2019

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PHOTO Michael P Moore

“When you’re told that you’re facing the end of the road, your mind has little choice but to focus on the important things in life, that really, really matter.”

gonatural250 250September September/ October / October2019 2019 10 gonatural

- REECE HOOD

cover

New beginning HEALTH

STORY & PHOTOS Michael P Moore

R

eece and Julie Hood have a lot to be joyous about.

Every day is a gift, a rich reward for just being, and being here. Six years ago, Reece was told by medical professionals in Tauranga that he had less than a year to live, as his prostate cancer had advanced to stage 4 and his body was shutting down.

The 58-year-old from the Bay of Plenty was first diagnosed ominously on Friday 13th December 2013, following an MRI. Surgery a month later showed his cancer had progressed, and it was the beginning of a nightmare that he had to confront head on. His family had to adjust to, whatever the outcome that lay ahead. “Men generally over 50, are in the high risk, and I was just over 52 when it was first found out I had this disease that wanted to kill me,� Reece said. He was finally cleared late 2016.

A life embracing naturism, and getting to understand his body, made him confront and approach the onslaught of the invasive cancer with order, decorum and zest, and the ability to refocus his life to become holistically and mentally healthy along the way.

Reece’s story is extraordinary, and a journey that has spanned the last six years to recovery. gonatural gonatural 250 250 September September/ /October October 2019 2019

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“We lived in Whanganui and I was 13 , my friend Hayley’s parents had a swimming pool and the local Sun Club went there, so from a very young age, I got the bug: to feel free to swim with no clothes. I loved it. Mum and dad were okay about my naked adventures; I loved striping off and laying in the backyard, enjoying the sun over my entire body. I would go to the beach and lakes, often on my own. After a few summers holidaying in the Bay of Plenty, our family moved to Tauranga, for the weather, living close to the beach. After I met Julie, I was down at Burnham Army Camp, south of Christchurch, we went along to Pineglades Naturist Club but it wasn’t something that Julie was interested in so much at that time.”

Reece Hood serves in the police and his beat often includes Papamoa Beach, a place popular for nudists.

He ensures people there behave and respect other beachgoers. “When we get calls saying there are naked people on the beach, I explain to them that there’s nothing wrong with that, unless there’s inappropriate behaviour. My colleagues know that I’m a naturist and they have a good understanding of the law around public nudity. A few years ago, I saw an advert in the local paper for Bay of Plenty Naturists, it wasn’t a club, more a social group that co-ordinated events. I was quick to join and participate.”

A weekend at Katikati with BOP Naturists was Julie’s one of her first ventures immersing herself into social nudity. “Julie enjoyed herself and it was an eye-opener for her,” Reece said. Following his journey through cancer, Reece has been a driving force behind Nude Dudes Swim, a Tauranga fundraiser for breast cancer. “I wanted to promote awareness of prostate cancer, so posed for nude art class. They focus on drawing form, shadow and muscle groups. It’s not about being nude and showing off, it’s empowerment for me, showing my scar and what it means. I want to show men it’s ok to have scars. It’s ok to be happy with the way your body looks. Be comfortable and open to talking. You see woman who’ve had mastectomies being gonatural 250 250September September/ October / October2019 2019 12 gonatural

PHOTO Bruce Barnard, Sun Media, Tauranga

photographed. It’s empowering and you can immediately empathise. Men don’t do that. I want to help change that. This experience gave me the balls to stand up and be heard maybe the way to do that is to shock people.”

Reece and Julie have a son, 28, and daughter, 26, who both accept and understand their father’s love for naturism. “They’re fine about it.

When they were young, they were running around at the beach naked all the time, and as they got into their teenage years, they didn’t participate as much, which is a natural transition of course.”

Reece served 21 years in the New Zealand Army, before joining the Police 15 years ago. Being a policeman was a life-long dream he said. “I remember telling mum when I was just 17. Julie understands the stress of the job, but I see this now as being a problem-solver and making a real difference in my community.” His love for naturist principles has always been an integral part of life, which gives him genuine joy with social interaction and acceptance. “The thing I love about naturism is, what you see is what you get, we’re not only open with others, but we’re openminded. To me, it’s about the value we put on life and the way we treat others. These beliefs have certainly rubbed off on our kids. There’s a real outward expression of love from our son, something that I don’t think you see in many young men.”

Reece’s surgery, just weeks after diagnosis, required an invasive complex operation that showed the cancer had progressed to the base of his spine. His prostate was embedded in this mass of cancer. “I was told it was now stage 4 and terminal.

‘There’s nothing we can do now besides chemo and radiotherapy, it will just give you some time - probably six months to a year, just palliative care’,” they said. “I was amazed at how strong Julie was; she seemed to take the news in her stride. If it was the other way around, and was told she had terminal breast cancer, I would have been a melting idiot.

I remember sitting there, just after we got the news, and I burst into tears,

Life modeling for cancer because I wasn’t going to see my daughter turn 21, get married, have grandchildren. It was those things that upset me most. I refused to undergo chemotherapy - I would rather live for six months as I am, than have 12 months and ending up a shrivelled little prune. So I started to research high dosage intravenous vitamin C, which was largely untested.”

Reece kept himself as fit as possible and immersed in his work, so his mental health was in the best shape it could be. The intake of vitamin C was accompanied by a raft of other drugs including a hormone replacement, to push his testosterone down, that cancer feeds on. The side effects were substantial: producing estrogen, breast development, losing hair, and no sexual drive or erections.

“All men should get a PSA (prostatespecific antigen) blood test. In my job, I see young people being killed in road accidents, they don’t even consciously think about what they’re doing. My journey has made me appreciate what we’re given, and make the most of it, make every day count. I didn’t think of consequences when I was young either, but when you get cancer, it makes you think more about life and when you believe you’re not going to have a lot of time left with your family, the bond becomes much stronger and you realise how precious life is – it’s made our kids realise that life is valuable and we all make the most of it now.

What is prostate cancer?

Prostate cancer begins when cells in the prostate gland start to grow out of control. The prostate is a male gland and makes some of the fluid that is part of semen. The prostate is below the bladder (the hollow organ where urine is stored) and in front of the rectum.

Symptoms - trouble with flow of urine startin; - trouble stopping the flow of urine; - stream of urine is weak, or it stops and starts; needing urgently to pass urine at any time; feeling a need to pass urine more often during the day, even though not much comes out; getting up at night to pass urine more than once; pain and/or burning when passing urine.

High-dose/intravenous vitamin C • Vitamin C can reach much higher levels in the blood than taken by mouth; studies suggest vitamin C may cause the death of cancer cells.

• High-dose vitamin C has been studied as a treatment for cancer patients since the 1970s.

INFO prostate.org.nz

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My story REECE HOOD

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hen I think about my battle with cancer and my use of High Dose Intravenous vitamin C after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, I had surgery to remove my prostate in January 2014.

During surgery, the surgeon found that the cancer tumour was very aggressive and had spread outside the prostate and travelled up to the base of my spine. As a result, my cancer was re-diagnosed as stage 4 and I was told that I would have to undergo radiotherapy and possibly chemotherapy treatments to try and control it.

A friend of mine mentioned that she had read about a police officer in Whangarei who had been diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer and that vitamin C had helped him. My wife and I did some research and found out about Dr Mike Godfrey and went to visit him. He stated that there had not been any research to show that high dosage vitamin C would cure my cancer but that it could help with recovery from surgery. Any further medical procedures such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy. He also mentioned the correlation of cancer and other things in everyday life like diet, amalgams in your teeth, stress and radiation emitted from cell phones. I would also have to do a blood test to see if I had a certain enzyme in my body which would inhibit me from taking the vitamin C. I started on 50 grams of vitamin C, on a twice weekly schedule in May 2014, while also looking at other alternatives. I cut down my intake of processed sugars, diary products and breads. My family and I have always eaten fairly healthily but I introduced green smoothies with lots of antioxidants including spinach, kale and berries and was taking some other natural products given to me by Dr Godfrey including oral Vitamin C, Curcumin, selenium, homeopathics, and Salvestrols. At the time I was still

recovering from my surgery but had returned to work on a part time basis in a sedentary duty type role. A short time later I was sent to Hamilton Hospital to see an oncologist and discuss having radiotherapy. I was told that due to complications with my surgery, there was only a small chance that radiotherapy was going to help, and they could not safely dose me with the required radiation to the prostate area to kill the cancer cells. It would only help me reduce my pain and discomfort, giving me ‘quality of life’ for my remaining time.

At that time my doctor said I could only have up to 12 months left to live. He mentioned that I could look at chemotherapy as another type of treatment but I told him I was not interested in that. The oncologist would not be able to continue with the intravenous Vitamin C during the six weeks of radiotherapy as this could counteract the treatment being provided. I did continue taking Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C orally. I was not very happy about having to stop the IV Vitamin C treatment as I really believed that it was helping me. I seemed to have more energy after having the treatment and it gave me a positive outlook.

It helped that other patients being treated at the same time, became friends and we would look forward to seeing each other during the week.

People like Leanne, Constance and Kawe were just great and we would feed off each other with stories from the week to keep our spirits up. Even though all of us had been told the same thing by our own doctors, to go home and make yourself comfortable around your family and friends, none of us gave up.

I remember the first time I came along for my vitamin C and heard all this cackling coming from the other room and I thought ‘oh my god, what have I got myself into’ only to find the new friends laughing up a storm. It wasn’t long before I was joining in their jovial moods. After my six weeks of radiotherapy, I returned to having Vitamin C twice weekly and continued to work part time. I found that if I went to work afterwards, it made me concentrate on other things rather than my cancer and the prognosis.

Having other people around me made me feel good and my work

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colleagues were very considerate, treating me no differently than before I got sick. This helped me to keep a positive frame of mind and at no time did I think that I was not going to beat the cancer. I had all my amalgams safely removed by a dentist that was recommended to me by Dr Godfrey.

I started to carry my cell phone either away from my body, or if I had to have it in my pocket, turned around so that the back of the phone faced away from my body. I also got back into my fitness training as soon as I physically could, although I obviously had to do this very slowly.

During the year between April 2014 and February 2015 my health improved tremendously and my wife and I decided to go on an extended holiday overseas when I was well enough to travel. We sorted out a bucket list of places to see and things to do while away and I think that having things planned and to look forward to helped with my recovery.

By this stage I had extended my hours at work to six hours a day and I felt I was over the worst of it.

I definitely believe that cutting down on the stresses in my life helps with recovery. In February 2015 I cut down my vitamin C treatments to once a week as I needed to know if I was going to be able to cut them out completely before travelling overseas in May. I didn’t seem to have any adverse effects from this so continued with one treatment a week until May. Whilst I was overseas I did not have any intravenous vitamin C treatments but continued with the oral vitamin C. On our return to New Zealand in November 2015, I stopped my intravenous treatment but have continued with the oral dosage.

I am now officially in remission.

I don’t know whether any of the above things or all of them had anything to do with my successful battle with cancer.

However, I do believe that the high dose intravenous treatment saved my life, as the medical profession had given me a very slim chance of survival.

I believe it is important to keep yourself as mentally and physically healthy as possible, (depending on your individual circumstances), and to have a positive frame of mind and not to give up. l

Julie and Reece at Katikati I have found naturism a healthier way of being, living. I enjoy the natural things like nature, eating greens, berries. When the oncologist told me it was terminal prostate cancer and chemo - which I refused - would just prolong my life a bit, I was asked to get a second opinion in Auckland and they told me the same thing. In my mind this will kill bad and good cells, targeting tissue and microorganisms.

It was a big risk to take, but I did something also that was a risk.”

Prostate cancer now affects men younger. Reece was 53 when he was diaganosed and said he was pretty young. 1 in 5 men would contract it and out of those, for 70%, it would be terminal. Just like breast cancer, testing early is vital.

“Respecting your body and understanding yourself, gave me a better appreciation for life. I had to listen to doctors, read studies they recommended, but with a healthy diet instead of drugs, it worked for me. However, there was a time very early on, when it all made me very depressed. I remember we went on holiday to Australia with the kids, we were on the 14th floor of a hotel - I thought... ‘I could just throw myself out the window, it would be easy and I would die quickly’, but thought what my kids and Julie would have to remember about that moment.

Sure it was a battle, but after that low moment, I tried to keep myself positive. Whilst I don’t have a religious bone in my body ‘was it a miracle,

Partying with BOP Naturists or was it because all the hard work I put in? It certainly gave me an appreciation of life and confidence in myself and how I live. I didn’t want to give up. But it’s so important for men to understand and talk about these things and take action early. “ Dr Mike Godfrey who specialises in a natural therapy approach, was central to Reece’s extraordinary road to recovery. He has been practicing since 1971, after posts in the UK, and in 1986, established an environmental health and chelation clinic in Tauranga. Dr Godfrey began using vitamin C for cancer patients in the 1980s and has administered more than 60,000 treatments during his career. “High-dose intravenous vitamin C has the ability to improve patient well-being and extend life beyond specialists’ forecasts. It’s not a cure-all, but it is a major player that can slow down and sometimes stop cancer cells from multiplying.

Most of us are vitamin C deficient, and deficiencies in cancer patients

are particularly bad. If New Zealand oncologists were to combine vitamin C with standard treatments, they would find that not only did their patients sail through with much reduced side-effects, but that more would survive.”

Reece and Julie took an overseas holiday a year after his surgery as the treatment appeared to be having a positive effect. “I then just got better and better.”

Alongside his surgery scar, he has inscribed in Latin ‘Fortes fortuna iuvat’ - Fortune favours the brave, a homage to make uncharted decisions to heal his body, with XIII XII MMXIII - the date when his life changed forever: 13th December 2013.

“I’m cancer free now, cancer free.

It’s an amazing feeling.” Reece wrote ‘Battling the Beast’, a 1,000-word poem about his battle with the big ‘C’, dedicated to his wife and best friend, Julie: “I know that I will forever be on guard, waiting for the beast to play l his next card.”

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Wa

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Walking ainuiomata STORY Patrick Fotheringham PHOTOS Brent Anderson, Michael Karav

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he lush native forests and clear rivers of the Wainuiomata and Orongorongo catchment areas were recognised early on for their water supply potential. In 1880 an earth dam was constructed and a pipeline laid to Wellington. Since this time further developments have taken place. These include the construction of the Morton Dam in 1911, and construction of a weir and pipeline from the Orongorongo Catchment in 1924.

By the late 1980s the system had reached the end of its useful working life. Morton Dam was decommissioned and emptied of its water. In 1993 a new state-of-the-art treatment plant was built. Water is now taken directly from weirs in both the Wainuiomata and Orongorongo catchments. The new plant produces up to 60 million litres of high-quality water per day and supplies about 15 percent of the water used by greater Wellington. gonatural gonatural 250 250 September September/ /October October 2019 2019 17

The water collection area behind Wainuiomata has been used for water supply since 1880 and around 1927 was closed to the public. As water treatment methods have improved over time, access became possible and can be granted on special request.

When I made my request in the depths of winter in 2018 I managed to select the coldest day in February 2019. I thought Waitangi day would be a safe choice, actually it was almost my only choice as I had to avoid overlapping with other groups and users.

The day dawned with grey skies, passing showers and a cool wind. I was surprised to see 15 brave souls turned up at the public car park, I thought I would be on my own. After a bit of chatting it was time to marshal the cars into a line and get everyone through the traffic barrier. We were obliged to drive slowly through the pedestrian

area to reach the first locked gate. Beyond this gate there is no regular public access and we would be on our own.

I had to give a health and safety briefing, at the last car park, as the whole area is a work place for Wellington Water and as it is a water collection area, there are some requirements regarding human waste.

We were ready to start walking, and a few were brave enough for full club uniform. We passed through the second locked gate and looked at a decommissioned dam, it has a big piece cut out of it, due to it being an earthquake risk. A little further on is a small power station, water is collected from the Orongorongo River and is gravity fed through a tunnel to

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the power station before going to the nearby water treatment plant. Sufficient power is generated to run the whole plant with some to spare.

Crossing a small creek provided a challenge to keeping dry feet, most made it ok, before following a gravel road alongside the Wainuiomata River. Some feasted on the blackberries growing largely untouched beside the road.

On reaching a water intake (it was all fenced off) it was time to take a break and enjoy the occasional moment of sun.

We then turned around and followed a sealed road toward George Creek and into some very good lowland forest. The trees towered over us, almost touching the clouds (which

were not far above). Looking down revealed a carpet of ferns and small plants.

At the end of the road is the entrance to the tunnel to the Wainuiomata River. It was completed in 1924 and the pipe within supplies water to Lower Hutt and Wellington, there is also a narrow gauge railway for transporting people through the tunnel. It was also a good spot for lunch, unfortunately the rain showers made some of the sandwiches soggy.

Going back down the road we took a shortcut across a bridge and as the day had warmed up slightly, everyone donned club uniform for a short while.

The water collection area is also an ecological reserve and

all vehicles that enter beyond the car park must have the underside and tyres thoroughly cleaned. I brandished a high pressure water hose in a threatening fashion, but everyone was already a bit wet, so nobody took any notice.

We returned through the second locked gate, after I remembered the combination, to the car park. It was a great walk, shame about the weather, we would have stayed longer if it was warmer. I marshalled the cars back through the first locked gate, and kind of lost count, I am sure everyone made it out.

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ENDURANCE

Free-solo champ bares all On June 3, 2017, 34-year-old climber Alex Honnold became the first to climb El Capitan, without ropes.

He ascended the 914 mt (3,000 ft) granite monolith in 3 hours, 56 minutes. His extraordinaly climb was filmed for the 2018 documentary Free Solo.

“W

ell, it’s sort of an unusual photo shoot for me, turns out rock is quite rough when you don’t have any clothes on,” Alex Honnold said. The famous climber stripped his shirt, shorts, shoes and chalk bag for the naked photo shoot for ESPN’s 11th annual Body Issue, celebrating all human forms.

Honnold is the first to free solo El Capitan, known as El Cap, a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park in 2017. It was painstakingly filmed by cinematographers who were also highly skilled climbers. Free Solo received the Oscar for best documentary at the 91st Academy Awards.

Free solo climbing is done without ropes, harnesses or other protective equipment, relying entirely on strength and skill and is considered the most dangerous form of climbing.

I think this is a rite of passage. As a child I was so shy, I couldn’t speak in my class, I couldn’t stand in front of a group and do public speaking at all. So being able to stand nude in front of a bunch of folks is basically a rite of passage. Just like a sign of manhood that I’ve just arrived. I always tell beginner climbers that it’s all about your legs, and pushing up, about technique and placing your feet well. But I feel my arms and my hands are more identified with the act of climbing. At a certain level, you just have to be able to hold on to the wall. You end up with unique sort of hands. I think that climbing is more of a whole body sport than people might expect. A lot might expect that it’s pull ups and arms, but the reality is that you should be pushing up with your legs and there’s a ton of core because the engagement between your feet and your arms is all about your core. Really climbing is your entire body.

I got into climbing as a kid. I always loved climbing on things: trees and buildings and whatever I could play on.

And then I got into rock climbing with a gym opened in my home town.

There are tons of different styles of climbing - I personally prefer the rock climbing end of the spectrum. I enjoy the movement, the athleticism, holding on and climbing rock.

When I was young, it was really counter-culture, and now

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it’s much more mainstream. It’s very much split between the mental and physical side. It depends on the person of how it plays out. For me, the mental side has always come easily, so I’ve had to focus on the physical. When you’re free soloing, it’s more about the mental side, mostly because you’re never climbing at your limits, because that would be Russian roulette, and a high chance of death. So the challenge with free soloing is doing something that you know you can physically do, but to keep yourself mentally under control and actually perform it to the best of your ability. I don’t do anything that could be considered mental training.

I have however, over the years progressively done harder climbs, which is progressively pushing my comfort zone to include things which I couldn’t have done before. To me, it’s one of the most magical amazing feelings, it can be incredible. But it can also be terrifying and horrible if I’m not properly prepared. There really is a freedom to it, you’re so unencumbered, you can take whatever pace you want; it really is a comfortable way to climb.

I think the most satisfying thing of free soloing is the actual feeling of being on the wall, flowing up the wall, feeling like you’re climbing perfectly.

Soloing El Cap was certainly very satisfying, I’d built it so much in my mind, and had worked so hard towards, by the time I summited, it was extremely satisfying. But ultimately being on the wall was the most rewarding part. I’d say climbing is 85% fun and 15% crushing workouts or just work. With climbing, there’s no boss, there’s no team, there’s no manager, it’s just you, and things you’re inspired by.

I think the thing about doing this naked photo shoot, is how everyone’s body morphs to whatever they need it to do. The human form is so malleable to the stimulus you apply to it. If you need it to do one thing, it will do that thing, if you train hard enough.

VIDEO tinyurl.com/AlexHonnold2019

PHOTO Cory Richards for ESPN gonatural 250 250 September September/ /October October 2019 2019 gonatural

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Darryl the flipper, Kiedis the flipped. Auckland Outddoor Naturist Club.

PHOTO Conrad Inskip

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Naked vets t

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BARELY THERE

to the rescue

A nude calendar tradition for Massey students runs more than skin deep.

STORY Michael P Moore

PHOTOS Michael Morgan

N

aked students at university festivities are not that uncommon, but for a group of students at Massey University Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Palmerston North, stripping off is not only fun but a way to support a cause close to their skin and heart.

The Barely There calendar has been a Massey tradition for 14 years and provides a valuable charity fundraising opportunity. This year, Pet Refuge has been chosen. Students are working towards their grueling five-year Bachelor of Veterinary Science degree, however for 22-year-old Korynn from Boston, Massachusetts, the calendar shoot provided a welcome break from stidies. “It was a lot of fun. We went out to my friend’s farm in Taranaki and the day was a bit chilly, and the experience was a bit funny, gonatural 250 gonatural 250 September September // October October 2019 2019

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I guess,” Korynn said, who admits she wanted to look good for the photos. “I actually worked pretty hard to prepare for it, I was on this diet and had a personal trainer.”

“We had a hoodie on, to keep warm before the actual photograph, then they would set up the photo and we would bare it all. We all had a really good time, drinking beer, laughing and enjoying the moment together.”

Korynn said it was great enjoying the camaraderie.

“Afterwards, we had a great feed together, lots of donuts, because it was quite freezing in Taranaki when we took the photos. The guys were so worried about getting a good photo,” said Korynn. “There was lots of banter and making fun of each other, with good humour.”

Korynn said she was motivated to get into veterinary science for animal welfare. “Helping with this charity makes it all worth it, it’s something we don’t have back home, so I’m really pleased to support.”

Participating in the popular calendar shoot, makes the half-way point of a five-year degree for the vet students.

“It’s a much-loved tradition to celebrate making it to half way,” says Caitlin, the organiser behind this year’s calendar. “After two and a half years of hard work and dedication, we mark the occasion with a whole class weekend trip to Taupo. We’re swapping endless hours of lectures together, for sky-diving, white-water rafting and relaxing spa treatments. It’s an awesome chance for us to unwind, spend quality time together and prepare us for the final stages of our degree.”

This year 10% of proceeds from the calendar will go to Pet Refuge New Zealand. “This charity is held close to our hearts, as we strongly believe in the safety of pets regardless of circumstance and allowing people an easier transition out of an abusive environment,” Catlin says.

Pet Refuge provides temporary shelter for pets affected

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“We all had an amazing time, laughing and enjoying the experience.”

- Korynn

by domestic violence, keeping them safe while their owners escape abuse. Cruelty to animals is common in domestic violence, and some who use violence will often threaten, injure and even kill a pet to control family members. Animal abuse can be a significant barrier to victims leaving violence as most can’t take their pets with them when seeking refuge.

Pet Refuge offers a nationwide service solely dedicated to housing the pets of those affected by domestic violence, and also partners with Women’s Refuge for referrals.

“The shelter will be located rurally in the Auckland area, and has been designed to be a safe haven where pets can recover from abuse. We are also building a network of safe farms across New Zealand to assist people who have larger pets such as horses or other farm animals. The pets we will assist are not unwanted, they are very much loved by their owners who want to keep them safe while they escape abuse.

Pet Refuge will act as the guardians of these pets, keeping them safe for as long as is needed until they can be reunited with their owners. We believe no one should have to live with violence.

Our shelter will ensure pet owners know their animals are safe while they start a new life free from violence. When a pet can escape abuse, so can a family.

GET THE CALENDAR vetcalendar.co.nz petrefuge.org.nz

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Defending our r GUEST COLUMN

STORY Daniel Copeland PHOTO Amanda Kennedy

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udity ought to be legal and accepted everywhere it is physically safe. The fact that it is not is a societal injustice. I know most of you aren’t going to agree straight off the bat, so let me lay out my reasoning and see what you think.

Admittedly, it’s not a major societal injustice. There are other injustices with more dire consequences for more people, that more deeply undermine our ability to trust each other and are more urgent priorities.

Relatively few people share my autistic sensory aversions to clothing, and those aversions don’t usually rise above the level of mild discomfort unless it gets very hot or the clothing in question is wet. (Swimming-togs feel like knives cutting me.) But most of the time, I think, struggles against different injustices help rather than hinder one another. Raising people’s awareness of one injustice makes them more alert to other injustices, not less. It isn’t a competition.

First point: People deserve a degree of respect simply on account of being people. That includes being able to go about one’s daily business without harassment from one’s fellow citizens. There is no amount of clothing one might wear or not wear that would make one deserve to be yelled at, ogled, pelted with rubbish, or chased off the streets. It is therefore unfair to yell at someone, ogle them, throw things at them, or chase them away because of what they might choose to wear or not to wear.

Second point: Injustice is fundamentally the same thing as unfairness. We just tend to reserve the weightier word for when there are graver consequences, such as when discrimination is enforced by the police or when it prevents

people from participating fully in society. Therefore, if people are threatened with arrest or prevented from participating in society due to what they are wearing or not wearing, that is an injustice. If the law allows or prescribes for it, the law is unjust.

Third point: People are in fact harassed, arrested, and ejected from public places if they go nude.

We’ve just agreed that this would be an injustice if it happened; well, it does happen, and therefore it is an injustice.

Finally, this particular injustice is enforced by society as a whole, not just by officers of the law. That makes it a societal injustice. The fact that nudity is not legal or acceptable is a societal injustice. There you go.

Somehow this is easier to see when the body taboo in question is that of a culture that isn’t our own – when it’s Arab police forcing women into hijab or French police forcing them out of it, Victorian missionaries imposing Western clothing on Pacific Islanders or that one group of Pacific Islanders (the Kwaio on Malaita in the Solomons) who impose toplessness on Western visitors. But an injustice is an injustice, and it is in the nature of societal injustices that they feel like ordinary common sense to enculturated members of the societies that enforce them. Which would include ours. Which means that just because wearing clothes feels like ordinary common sense to us, doesn’t mean that it’s not a societal injustice.

Now, how serious an injustice is it?

Is anyone seriously hurt by having to wear clothes (obviously not counting us autistics and our autistic sensory issues which make us, as we are reminded daily, such a nuisance to normal people)? Well, there are a couple of problems that I think are bound up with it.

One concerns body image. Many

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people hate their bodies and live with misery over their perceived bodily flaws. Negative body image has been plausibly implicated in potentially life-threatening eating disorders.

And negative body image appears to be connected with the fact that we only get to see a narrow range of highly idealized human bodies in the media – the ever-encroaching and ever more visually flamboyant media, as it becomes ever defter at Photoshopping out the imperfect.

It’s reasonable to suppose that if we were able to see what real, nonidealized bodies actually look like, it would take a lot of the pressure off.

Except we don’t have to suppose it any more, because it’s been confirmed by research. A 2018 study in the Journal of Happiness Studies found that participation in naturist activities had a significant positive effect on body image, which in turn had strong positive effects on selfesteem and life satisfaction. In line with the hypothesis we’ve just proposed, it appears to be seeing other people naked, rather than being naked oneself, that produces the positive effect.

It’s hardly news, of course, that body image is a problem in our society.

For decades we’ve had public health campaigns and inspirational memes trying to counteract the problem by telling us to “Love your body, it’s beautiful!” I must point out that when you add in the societal prejudice against nudity, you get the composite message “Love your body, it’s beautiful, but wrap it in cloth because it’s disgusting!” – the inconsistency of which, I can’t help thinking, probably has a lot to do with why the idea isn’t catching on as well as we’d have hoped.

Second, there’s the excuse we still continue to make for sexual assault and rape. “She was asking for it, dressed like that.” “What did she expect, going out with practically

rights

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nothing on?” “You can’t blame him, she wasn’t leaving much to the imagination.” “Sexually assaulted, you say. What were you wearing?” ...and on and on and on. There is no evidence to support any connection between one’s choice of attire and one’s risk of being attacked, and yet the myth persists.

Why? If there’s no connection in reality, what fools people into thinking there is one? Consider what girls get told from their pre-teen years on: “Don’t wear your skirt too high or your neck-line too low or your leggings too tight or your sundress too loose or your crop-top too brief or your shoulders too exposed, because it’s ‘distracting’ to men.” Let’s be clear on this. The problem isn’t that men think women’s bodies are nice, which is just as well because there’s no way to change that (no, covering them up doesn’t work). The problem is that men think women’s bodies are permission.

Why do men think women’s bodies are permission? There are several contributing factors, such as that many more men still see women as lesser beings than will admit it. But it can’t be helpful that our culture considers some parts of the human body to be inherently sexual regardless of the intentions of their owner. Once you accept that, the rest is just quibbling over where to draw the boundaries.

After grumbling on Facebook recently about having been unable to cool off at a summer music festival because of families with kids using both swimming-holes, I had a friend earnestly explain (thereby inspiring me to write this article) that it was an issue of social norms, however outmoded those social norms might be. I mean, I know social norms do go over my head quite often, but this particular one forces me into discomfort every day of my life, and even I can’t miss that. In any case, it kind of proves my point. It is a social norm. An unjust social norm is a societal injustice. That’s exactly the problem.

The question at issue was: how does social nudity sit with the consent ethic? Sexual activity morally requires the continuing consent of all

participants, including any onlookers.

Nudity is widely perceived as sexual even when it isn’t intended sexually.

Does it follow that nudity therefore requires consent from every onlooker who perceives it as sexual?

Before you answer “yes,” consider what that implies in the light of what we were just discussing a moment ago. Short skirts, visible cleavage, skin-tight clothing, and bare midriffs are all perceived as sexual by some people. For that matter, existing while young and female is perceived as sexual by some people. If being perceived as sexual is our standard for seeking consent, then logically we’re going to end up requiring all young women to ask people’s permission to enter public spaces while lightly dressed. That would contradict the principle of bodily autonomy which is the foundation of the consent ethic.

Which was where social norms came in. I don’t imagine that my friend meant that consent is required before you deviate from any social norm, because in that case I’d be in serious trouble. I think the idea was that you’re supposed to seek people’s consent for things that are generally perceived, according to prevailing social norms, to be sexual – including nudity.

There’s nothing unreasonable, given the current state of society, about asking consent before taking your clothes off. But remember, the consent ethic is founded upon bodily autonomy, and bodily autonomy should not wait upon social norms.

Imagine a society where it is the norm for young women to stay cloistered indoors because their presence is deemed too provocative for public spaces. If a young woman in that society defies the norm and walks down the main street visibly female, many of the men who see her will unfortunately have sexual thoughts about her. The society in question may well respond by arresting her or worse. Is she doing anything morally wrong? Now by focusing on women and on issues that disproportionately affect women, you may feel that I’m evading a significant point. Male nudity is a bit different. The way our society sees it, female nudity is an

32 gonatural 250 September / October 2019

invitation, but male nudity is a threat.

And not an entirely imaginary threat either, I’m afraid. Some men use it as a form of sexual harassment. But there’s every difference between merely having visibly ungloved hands and actively shaking your fist in someone’s face, and that distinction applies equally to other body parts.

Or it would, if those body parts were a common sight. As it is, indecent exposure owes its power to the shock value of the naked body. Take that shock value away by normalizing nudity, and these men have lost their biggest weapon. Even in the law (though the law is an ass) what’s forbidden, in New Zealand at least, is to display one’s genitals “intentionally and obscenely”. Which implies, since every word in the law is there for a reason, that it is possible to display one’s genitals not obscenely.

After all that talk about injustice and morals and principles I imagine you’re expecting me to come out with some dramatic call to arms, but you can relax. I mean, if you want to do big nude protests and so on I will support you all the way, of course.

But there’s a thing that happens on the internet when people set out to combat societal or political injustices, where you can get accused of being in favour of the injustice if you don’t oppose it enthusiastically enough.

I promise I won’t start that. If you, unlike me, are comfortable wearing clothes, and social nudity is not practical or not safe for you or you just don’t feel like doing it, then don’t.

That mentality is not at all restricted to the social justice crowd. It’s also how social norms, including unjust ones, get enforced. In extreme cases you can find groups where every single member privately admits that the norm is stupid, but publicly maintains it – and helps enforce it on other group members – because everyone thinks that everyone else believes in it. I don’t think the nudity taboo is quite at that point yet. But if you bring the topic up in private conversation, many more people than you’d think will admit that of course there’s nothing wrong with human bodies really, it’s just that they don’t want “that” sort of reputation.

Things are changing. Given that

acquaintance doing life modelling or going to a nude beach or whatever, ask them straight out “What’s wrong with that?”

Let me leave you with this Petrarchan sonnet I wrote to sum up my feelings on the subject: Naked I came into this world of flesh at the same door that’s common to all birth, to find I could not walk upon the earth untrammelled by this clinging textile mesh. Reveal a human body, show afresh its ordinariness in all its worth – society’s horror, lust, and scornful mirth make an obscenity of guiltless flesh. No, I do not accept their useless shroud, upheld by, and upholding, that old stern deception whereby skin for sin is blamed.

I’ll push the boundaries of what’s allowed, so future generations in their turn may then go naked and go unashamed.

l

PHOTO: Rosea Lake’s 2012 photograph “Judgments”: a woman’s leg marked with skirt length labels from “matronly” and “prudish” on the calf up to “asking for it”, “slut”, and “whore” at the buttock. l gonatural / October gonatural 250 250September September / October2019 2019 33

Tumblr / Rosea Lake

it was Europe that imposed the nudity taboo on so much of the world, there’s an irony in the fact that Europe is now the most nudity-friendly region. In America Christianity remains largely a force for conservatism, yet the American Christian naturist movement is much bigger than anyone would suspect who is a Christian or a naturist but not both. (I’ve been both, but not at the same time.)

The bad news is that norms don’t change by themselves; they change when people who realize that they need to change, do something about it. And while they’re changing, anyone who was enculturated to the old norm – that is, anyone who thought “This is normality, this is the way things are supposed to be” – feels uncomfortable about it because now things aren’t the way they’re supposed to be any more.

Which is understandable and I’m sure we can all find it in our hearts to ease the way for them; but when all is said and done, it isn’t a good enough reason to preserve societal injustices. Lots of people were very uncomfortable when the gay rights movement started becoming mainstream for much the same reason that they’re uncomfortable now about nudity; gayness was inappropriately sexual, something that could be tolerated behind closed doors and exploited for risqué comedy but needed to be kept off the public streets and away from children. That wasn’t a good reason to oppose gay rights and it isn’t a good reason to oppose social nudity.

So while I’m not asking you to defy the anti-nudity norm yourself and get naked and march in the streets unless you want to, I am asking you to stop enforcing the norm unless I have completely failed to convince you and you still genuinely believe that nudity is a bad thing. Don’t report nude photos on Facebook.

Don’t tut over celebrities wearing revealing outfits to big public events.

Don’t react with disgust, or prurience either, if someone has a wardrobe malfunction and shows more skin than is conventionally acceptable.

And if someone tries to shock you with gossip about a mutual

Heart attack ends life of belove Randy Mayer, along with his husband Kev O’Connor, were regular visitors to New Zealand over the recent years and contributors to gonatural magazine.

As committed global wanderers, and passionate naturists, Randy and Kev visited New Zealand in 2016 for the World Congress in Wellington, and fell in love with a country that they returned to again and again.

Randy died on a beautiful sunny September morning on top of a hill in Broughshane, County Antrim, Northern Ireland where he loved cycling to. He was still on his bike when found after a heart attack. Randy was 64.

A cardiologist just a week earlier said he was fine with his relentless exercise routine. Naturism was an important part of both Randy and Kev’s life, at home, through their couchsurfing connections and especially when they travelled. During their visits to New Zealand, they visited almost every club.

“We have a very dear place in our hearts for New Zealand,” Kev O’Connor said. “Just a day before Randy died, we had booked our next four-month visit there again, and were really looking forward to reconnecting with our friends.”

Former secretary for the New Zealand Naturist Federation June Campbell-tong gave her sincere condolences, and

l 34

gonatural gonatural 250 250September September/ October / October2019 2019

Randy Mayer

mpaign ’s summer ca promoting NZ er 2017 mb ce De l gonatura

said he will be missed. In December 2017, Randy was photographed on the South Island’s Golden Bay beach to promote ‘Love the Skin You’re In’ summer gonatural campaign. Randy was a son, brother, uncle, husband and traveller. He could also be described as a planner, theatre critic, animal lover and a cyclist. His fitness and healthy diet was a relentless discipline. He served with the US military, based in Germany managing the

ved naturist recreation programme. He had a deep love for his mother, and although, separated by distance, he spoke to her every day, and she remained a big influence in his life.

Growing up in Pittsburg, USA, was a world away from Broughshane, Ireland, his adopted home town, where locals welcoming him with open arms.

A cycle race in Edinburgh next summer and a yoga class in Belfast, have been dedicated in his hour. Randy had big ideas and whenever restrictions were applied, he would always find a way to push the boundaries to the limit.

During the past five years, he applied for UK citizenship, meaning he was only able to be absent for 3 months a year, and he and Kev squeezed every inch of that travelling to the other side of the world. In March, he gained British citizenship at a ceremony in Lisburn. In May, he was fitted with a pacemaker, that made him feel better. “This made him feel better physically and the freedom from travel restrictions made him extremely happy and content - possibly the best he’d been in years,” Kev said. “It is a comfort to know today that his passing happened in an instant, at a time when he was out on his beloved bike, on a beautiful sunny autumn day, cycling along with a view of the Slemish mountain and the Braid Valley before him.”

Randy lived life doing as much as he could, he was restless for experience and adventure, which he loved with his husband Kev trying to keep up.

Miss Bareall writes...

Helping you with life’s ruddy nuddy problems

Ask life’s quandaries MissBareall@gmail.com

Hello my darlings… Oh Bliss ! it’s that time of the year again when things are warming up!..and judging by some of the letters I get, some of you are hotting up too! Remember you can always email me for a confidential ear and some good old-fashioned advice! I get several emails from those not wanting their problem published but needing Miss Bareall to help them on their way. I love to help others so always know that I am there for you should you need a guiding hand..

Dear Miss Bareall, mine is a work-related problem. I am getting unwanted attention from a work colleague who effectively is a boss. It’s very subtle but the innuendos are become more and more sexual and I feel very uncomfortable but not sure how to handle this as I want and need my job. (edited) - WM of Wellington Dear WM, Oh dear, this can be quite a problem. I experienced something similar many years back and I found myself in the position of confronting the “gentleman” involved who of course acted very confrontational and blamed me for misconstruing the attention he had definitely been giving me… so I totally relate to your position. This has been a long-term activity and has gained current and world-wide attention with the “Me Too” movement rallying against this type of thing. But for advice?… well firstly I would try and avoid all situations where I was alone with this person. If that is not always possible, I would physically move away if he was close to me at my desk, and you know me, I am a great believer that communication solves everything, and so the next time you feel uncomfortable, I would say something directly to him like “I’m sorry, am I missing something here”? and look him directly in the eye. That alone should make him aware that you are on to him. Then, if nothing changes, I would up the ante and perhaps say “it makes me feel uncomfortable when you….

So please don’t”. Direct communication is a good start.

Dear Miss Bareall, I have wanted to see what happens at a naturist club. I am a little scared about approaching them but I have seen this magazine that you write in and wonder if you could advise me about protocol or what its all about. Thank you.

- MD of West Auckland

______________________ Kev and Randy, at Peka Peka Beach, Kapiti Coast, New Zealand

Dear MD, a good friend of mine told me the once that when she and her husband first went to a naturist park in the South Island many years ago, she was really unsure what to do and so slowly took her clothes off and posed like a life-model until she realised that no-one was looking at her and that she could just relax in the sun! Naturism is natural and I am sure that if you made contact with one of the NZ clubs you would be welcome to go to the club as a visitor. l gonatural

250 September / October 2019

35

LeisureTheme tourism ends

around

titbits to editor@gonatural.co.nz

Members are rejoicing that another winter is done and dusted and summer is literally just around the corner.

David Jones has closed his LeisureTheme naturist tourism business, after taking its final trip. “I expect to be fully occupied retired,” he said. “I thoroughly enjoyed my parttime venture into tourism and met many lovely peeps.

Hopefully I was able to make New Zealand work for all my clients over the 19 years. I've enjoyed this connection which was primarily for our naturist sector of the business and the many like-minded friends.”

WELLINGTON

The club hosted some fantastic social gatherings over the cold dark nights that were well-supported. Shirley’s midwinter Xmas in June always goes down a treat. A pot-luck dinner in July while watching All Blacks vs the Springboks.

In August, a Western-themed Howdy Hoe-down hosted by new members Claire, Andy, Gwyneth and Bruce. The club has experienced membership growth, put down to the tireless work of Brent. It is great to see new members getting involved in the club. The annual September hangi/roast dinner by Ken and Eru in conjunction with a quiz night by Murray and Sarah, is a popular event and our Halloween party in O c to b e r, hosted by Graeme and Petrina.

Members have also been busy at the monthly c l u b working bees. Earlier in the year we cut down a dozen Poplar trees on the golf course. It has been all chainsaws on deck to clear the wood. It won’t get quite so boggy down there now we hope. We have also completed toilet replacements and a roof over FAL ablution block. Brent will look after cabin management again this summer and bookings are coming in fast, so if you are planning a visit to Wellington in the near future, check out our website and get in quick and secure your booking. We would love to see you.

• wellingtonnaturists.co.nz Eddie Kwok, who served as editor of the NZ Naturist in 1975, died in Christchurch in August, at the age of 90. He had been a sports journalist for NZ Herald.

36 gonatural 250 September / October 2019

DUNEDIN Southern Free Beaches and Alpine Lakes Naturists join together for the only naked swim in Dunedin with large attendances. They also share 10-pin bowling and a recent quiz competition narrowly edged out Alpine Lakes for a Beaches win!

• southernfreebeaches@gmail.com

NZNF appointments Changes to office holders of the NZ Naturist Federation Murray Nash has been appointed as the Internet coordinator. He joined the naturist movement 44 years ago in Australia and has been a naturist ever since. Murray is a member of the Wellington Naturist Club and served as the NZNF’s first internet coordinator from 1998 for 10 years. He has held a range of positions both at club and national level.

Contact webmaster@nznf.nz Tiffany Pepperell from Taranaki, has been appointed as the Social Media co-ordinator.

The NZNF is seeking expressions of interest for Youth Co-ordinator and Marketing/Communications Officer. Contact president@nznf.nz

history from the archives

Letters to the editor New Zealand Naturist magazine, December 1985

HAWKES BAY Winter at Rapere, spring blossom isn’t far away

Polly’s seat installed Hawkes Bay Naturist Club has installed a memorial seat to remember Polly Fairbrother who took her life last year [#246 September 2018].

It is positioned on its own concrete plinth, with the magnolia tree behind it that was special to Polly.

This is going to become a very pleasant area to sit and contemplate what an amazing place Rapere is.

Dear Sir, re: Naturist #113 - June 1985. By the presentation of the motion at the Annual Meeting it was stated that: 1. The “Playboy” like cover and centre fold girls in our magazine have a killing effect of the NZ naturist movement by attracting the wrong public and frightening off the would be naturists, who do not like to be associated with a sex magazine.

2. The material published in the magazine is very poor for the same reason. Genuine naturists or nudists do not want to be associated with a sex movement. So they do not want to have their holiday photos and stories published in a magazine which “tries to compete with Playboy, Penthouse and similar publications” (as Doug Cousins stated in his article).

Naturists probably do not bother about Playboy type magazines, they might even like them. But being associated with a Playboy or Penthouse way of life is another thing. If the bigger sale is necessary to keep the magazine up, then costs can be cut by leaving out the pin-up girls and full colour photos. Using cheaper paper would not harm either. The “New Zealand Naturist” magazine should be a mirror of the naturist way of life. Whatever that might be it should never be related to sex. Although the last edition was remarkably “clean” with good club related articles and photos, the intention of Doug Cousins - as he stated in his article - does not guarantee that the magazine will stop its continuous pollution of the words “naturist” and “nudist”.

New Zealand and Australian nudists - if the future of the nudist movement goes to your heart, do something about it.

- Albert Wayers, Wellington Sun Club.

FREE BEACHES AGM at Auckland Sun Clun - Linda and Allan Geeves, Beatrice Bergamin, John Lowe, and Alexander Hagen-Thorn.

Dear Sir, I, too, have been concerned at the contents of the Naturist. I would rather see more ‘average family doing everyday things’ rather than girlie photos, and more club photos. Queries to the magazine were a long time being answered, and photos sent in of good quality, ignored. I have heard a number of comments in favour of printing location and club with each photo, as background often shows details of club grounds.

I would like very much to have two cameras, to photograph both in colour and black & white - I have one good camera, and on a very limited income cannot afford to take all the photos I would like, any suggestions? The quality of my work is reasonable, as you have already seen. WE must help OUR magazine as you say, but I am trying against slow communication and back-up of resources (money!). More local club, less overseas ‘girlie’, identify locality of photos, and credit photographers (we need encouragement, amongst other things!)

New range of gonatural car window stickers available for just $10

Dear GM- In answer to your first paragraph I will repeat a saying I have said since being editor and that is; we can’t print what we haven’t got. I think a lot of members think the Naturist is a large team of people who do nothing but write articles and take photos for the magazine. This is not so. We rely totally on nudists throughout New Zealand to supply us with what we publish, when they don’t supply sufficient material for an issue we must fall back on overseas suppliers. You could say that NZ nudists get the magazine they deserve. As far as crediting photos with captions is concerned, photos in articles obviously relate to those articles and other photos are there to illustrate the nudist way of life to the public (who buy the majority of the magazines) often I have no idea where the photos were taken so for uniformity and clarity it is better - we feel - not to caption any than just a few. Thank you for your support of the magazine and I hope this answers some of your queries.

Graeme Brown, Editor

AUCKLAND

Yours in nudism, G.M.

gonatural

250 September / October 2019

37

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Visit our website www.aonc.org.nz Membership enquiries: PO Box 95-235, Swanson, Auckland email aonc.sec@gonatural.co.nz

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gonatural 250 September / October 2019

Hawkes Bay Naturist Club

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Members receive gonatural magazine, newsletters and NZNF membership cards.

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gonatural magazine PO Box 37375, Halswell, Christchurch NEW ZEALAND 8245 Telephone: +64 21 321 144

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250 September / October 2019

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NORTH ISLAND

Directory NORTHLAND First Light Mangawhai Jude Road, Mangawhai 021 544 820 FirstLightMangawhai@gmail.com AUCKLAND Auckland Naturist Orewa PO Box 128, Orewa 0946. 09 427 6484, 027 135 7545

AucklandNaturist@gmail.com Auckland Outdoor Naturist Club PO Box 95235, Swanson, Waitakere 0653

09 833 9209 www.aonc.nz Villa du Soleil Surfdale, Waiheke Island. www.villadusoleil.co.nz john@villadusoleil.co.nz Auckland Sun Club

PO Box 20257, Glen Eden, Auckland 0641 09 814 9973 asc@gonatural.co.nz asc.gonatural.co.nz

Counties Sun Club

112 Ramarama Road, Ramarama, Drury RD3, Auckland 2579 027 296 2795 counties@gonatural.co.nz countiessunclub.com

SOUTH ISLAND

WAIKATO / BOP Waikato Outdoor Society Inc. PO Box 619, Hamilton 3240 027 631 6883

waikato.outdoor@gonatural.co.nz waikato.gonatural.co.nz

NZ Naturist Federation Wendy Lowe President president@nznf.nz Wilma Kremer Secretary secretary@nznf.nz Jim Bell Treasurer treasurer@nznf.nz Nick Lowe North Island Vice President nivp@nznf.nz

Katikati Naturist Park

149 Wharawhara Road, RD2, Katikati, 3178 0800 4 567 567 info@katikati-naturist-park.co.nz katikati-naturist-park.co.nz

Bay of Plenty Sun Club Inc.

PO Box 838, Whakatane, 3120. 027 440 5157 bopsc@gonatural.co.nz bopsun.gonatural.co.nz

CENTRAL Rotota Sun Club Inc.

PO Box 1164, Taupo 3351 07 333 7105 rototasunclub@gonatural.co.nz rotota.gonatural.co.nz

Taranaki Naturists Club

297 Brown Rd, RD42, Waitara, 4382 0274 390 543, 0275 421 813 027 444 2941 taranaki.naturists.club@gonatural.co.nz taranakinaturistsnz.com

Hawkes Bay Naturist Club

1504 Glengarry Road, RD 2, Napier 4182 027 450 0557 HBNC@gonatural.co.nz hawkesbay.gonatural.co.nz

Manawatu Naturist Club Inc.

PO Box 980, Palmerston North, 4440 027 390 4428 manawatu@gonatural.co.nz www.manawatunaturistclub.co.nz

Wellington Naturist Club

20 Molloys Road, Te Marua, Upper Hutt 5018 027 3306 212 secretary@wellingtonnaturists.co.nz wellingtonnaturists.co.nz

NELSON / MARLBOROUGH Nelson Sun Club

PO Box 33, Upper Moutere, Nelson 7144 027 710 8025 secretary@nelsonnaturally.co.nz www.nelsonnaturally.co.nz

Wai-natur Naturist Park

2704 State Highway 63, Wairau Valley, RD1 Blenheim 7271 03 5722 681, 021 326 199 info@naturist.co.nz naturist.nz

CANTERBURY Pineglades Naturist Club

PO Box 1823, Christchurch, 8140. 021 052 2528 pineglades@gonatural.co.nz pineglades.gonatural.co.nz

South Canterbury Sun Club

PO Box 13, Geraldine 7956. 021 123 5904 scsc@gonatural.co.nz scsc.gonatural.co.nz

Michael Moore gonatural Magazine Editor editor@gonatural.co.nz

OTAGO / SOUTHLAND Orchard Sun Club Inc.

PO Box 5460, Dunedin 9058 027 6178 412 orchard@gonatural.co.nz orchard.gonatural.co.nz

Alpine Lakes Naturist Club

Lowburn, Cromwell, Central Otago 9341 022 6031 439 alpinelakes@gonatural.co.nz alpinelakes.gonatural.co.nz

Mark Kennedy gonatural Merchandiser shop@gonatural.co.nz

Southern Naturally

Postal: 329 Guise Road Rd 1 Otautau 9689 027 224 2724 southernnaturally@gonatural.co.nz southernsun.gonatural.co.nz

Contact

Jeremy Kelleher South Island Vice President sivp@nznf.nz Christine Bowers Database Secretary database@nznf.nz NZ Naturists nznaturists@gonatural.co.nz Murray Nash Internet Co-ordinator / Social Media webmaster@nznf.nz Beatrice Bergamin President Free Beaches NZ president@freebeaches.org.nz Ken Mercer Sports Co-ordinator sports@gonatural.co.nz Les Olsen Archivist archivist@gonatural.co.nz Noel Thomas Business Manager gonatural Magazine magazine@gonatural.co.nz

Tiffany Pepperell Social Media co-ordator social-media@gonatural.co.nz VACANT Youth Co-ordinator youth@nznf.nz Marketing Officer marketing@nznf.nz

New Zealand Naturist Federation

PO Box 619, Waikato Mail Centre, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand

gonatural magazine PO Box 37375, Halswell, Christchurch 8245 021 32 1144

editor@gonatural.co.nz www.gonatural.co.nz/gonatural-magazine Free Beaches NZ

PO Box 20-295, Bishopdale, Christchurch 8543 06 879 9262, 03 310 6447 fredbear@freebeaches.org.nz freebeaches.org.nz

NZ NUDVAN Club

PO Box 619, Hamilton 3240 nudvan@gonatural.co.nz nudvan.gonatural.co.nz

New Zealand Naturists PO Box 619, Waikato Mail Centre, Hamilton 3240 021 043 8218

nznaturists@gonatural.co.nz www.gonatural.co.nz

40 gonatural 250 September / October 2019 44

kesBayRally tinyurl.com/Haw .nz y@gonatural.co ll ra tu a N y a B s e Hawk

what’s on? regular events

Parakai Springs Naturist Days 1st & 3rd Thursday monthly 10am-9pm. Book: Tel 09 4208998. parakaisprings.co.nz/ Facilities/Naturist-Days

2019 SEPTEMBER

1 6 15 28 28 21 26

OCTOBER

19 24 26-28 26 26

NOVEMER

2 16

DECEMBER 28 29 - 4 Jan

31

70th Birthday, Auckland Outdoor Naturist Club Naked Bingo, Auckland Outdoor Naturist Club Free Beaches Canterbury, Winter Walk Hangi/Roast dinner & Quiz night, Wellington Club World of Wearable Arts - Auckland Outdoor Club Bowls afternoon/social evening, Waikato Outdoor Halloween Party, Wellington Naturist Club Naked Girls Reading, Fringe Bar, Wellington Naked Girls Reading, Newtown, Auckland Labour weekend AONC 2019 Darts Competition Rugby World Cup Semi-Final

Open Day, Auckland Outdoor Naturist Club Trudi’s Xmas card making, Waikato Outdoor Society AGM, NZ Naturist Federation, Hawkes Bay 68th NZNF Rally & Naturist Festival - Hawkes Bay Details and registration: gonatural.co.nz New Year’s Eve pot luck dinner & fancy dress Manawatu Naturist Club

FEBRUARY 2020 21-23 Naturist Retreat, Berwick Lodge, Dunedin SouthernFreeBeaches@gmail.com 6-9 Mini Rally, Waikato Outdoor Society

l EVENTS LISTED HERE

Auckland Sun Club Sunday Saunas and Potluck meal Contact 021 034 6101 Auckland Outdoor Naturist Club Nude Bingo in the club house Every second Friday night Auckland Nude Yoga Men’s Class & Mixed Class aucklandnudeyoga.co.nz Taranaki Naturist Club Fish and chip night Every Friday at the club Waikato Outdoor Society 3rd Saturday, monthly event Wellington Naturist Club Summer: Sat nite BBQ & Sunday afternoon tea.

Winter: Fundraising dinner last Saturday of month.

Orchard Sun Club, Dunedin Club Weekend (monthly) Southern Naturally, Invercargill Open weekends October & February Free Beaches New Zealand: Wellington - Summer events Breaker Bay and Peka Peka Beach Contact Chris 021 375 119 email cburtt@xtra.co.nz Canterbury Beach/walks events CanterburyFreeBeaches@gmail.com Dunedin - Events, swims, spa 4th Sunday swim during winter SouthernFreeBeaches@gmail.com

gonatural.co.nz/locations-events gonatural

250 September / October 2019

45

NEW ZEALAND

gonatural 250 September / October 2019

Randy Drew Mayer Te Horo Bech, Kapiti Coast, March 2019. 12 May 1955 - 13 September 2019

.co.nz PHOTO Michael P Moore