A collaborative collation of the general history of Naturism in New Zealand   

This history is largely sourced from the longest-running Naturist publication in this country: the New Zealand Naturist - now known as gonatural.

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The demise of Auckland's sublime Ladies Bay began after local free-beacher Paddy Legett injured himself on the steps leading down to that beach. Retired grocers, Paddy & Angela, decided they could no longer risk their regular beach trip any more, and they moved across town to be nearer AOHC (where Paddy became PRO). A year or two later, in the early 90s, someone called Aaron decided he was going to 'convert it into an adult beach' and, given the lack of adequate oversight by the police; with the aid of half a dozen cronies, he did exactly that, during this decade.

The end of the decade began to see some backlash over beach use (especially at St Leonards) from one particular city council: North Shore. The push for this seems to have come from one particular junior official who made it his business to 'get rid of the nudes'. (He was also the person who hired the summer patrols - and gave them their 'riding instructions'.) Despite the legally very dubious intimidation tactics (taking names and threatening to issue Trespass Notices), his campaign was relatively successful. However, the Senior Sergeant who briefly fronted that campaign (on TV), seems to have received some timely intervention from Wellington's Office of the Commissioner and their negative campaign assistance from the police, promptly ceased. (Not that there was any public acknowledgement of that by the council or police, of course.) The new Auckland Council would seem to allow some leeway for rebuilding nude use there... Meantime, use of Pohutukawa Bay (at the north end of Long Bay) increased noticeably over the decade.

In general the 90s saw a continued consolidation of free beach use at the 'outer' beaches around the country, and also the move of the FBG's national committee from Auckland to Wellington. For a couple of years in the early 90s there was an unfortunte disagreement between the National Committee in Auckland and the Wellington Region Committee over newspaper reports of police interest in the activities of two Wellingon members at Breaker Bay. Those two resigned and eventually, national harmony prevailed.

During this time the use of Kapiti Coast's Peka Peka Beach grew steadily, especially after an easier access from the end of Te Hapua Rd become available.

Near Nelson, Mapua Leisure Park added a restaurant to their venture, which the independent managers specifically advertised to the public. In real estate jargon, the restaurant had 'absolute beach frontage' so during the day at least, patrons had a fine view along the free beach, about 20 metres away.

Near the middle of the decade (after spending ten years running the Adobe motel to make the money to buy the land) Kevin & Joan Sampson established Katikati Naturist Park where they've since had their work and dedication recognised with at least two major National Tourism Awards.

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