Clothes-optional Locations

this was written by Nudman (my psudonym) a while ago.

Wilderness Camping.

For Christmas holiday this year we (Mrs. Nudman) and myself decided to go to a place north of Auckland where friends own a large (500+ acre) patch of bliss.

As we pulled into the property, we realised that we were completely alone for at least 4 days (our friends weren't going to join us until later that week). so we would be able to get back to our natural origins whenever and wherever we wanted.

After unpacking our belongings and getting ourselves settled we decided that it was time to check out the stream.

The last few times I had visited the property (lets just call it Noonu valley for now) it had been autumn or winter and the stream was more of a raging torrent than the peaceful stream we were now seeing trickling along before us.

Without hesitation, I stripped off down to my sunsuit, and proceeded to wade into the crystal clear waters.

Wow, now that is what I think being a naturist is all about, getting the entire sensation of the water and the cool breeze as it puffed on the parts that had not hit the fresh 'mountain stream'.

Now is where I get the pleasure of describing the place where we are staying.

It is a small clearing in the bottom of the stream valley floor which has a small building on it.

There are no amenities (there are nowdays), cooking is done on an open fire, and water is out of a bottle, that you bring with you.

Toilet facilities are rudimentary, to say the least, and usually comprise of this tree or that, and for larger deposits, a spade is required to allow the nasties to be composted naturally. (it has now been upgraded to composting loo)

As I got out of the water with the now naked family, I decided to let the wind and the sun do the job instead of using a towel, and shortly after I was lounging lazily in the sun getting naturally dry.

This sort of started the trip for me as it was going to be, not a stitch on save the 'sarong' in the mornings to avoid the splatter from the bacon and eggs as I was cooking.

The next day the nudman family went for a walk in the bush to see a well talked about swimming hole with waterfall.

The swimming hole was well up the valley, and following the creek eventually got us there, after a stop or two to swim and cool down in smaller spots along the way.

It is a great feeling to be doing this in the buff, as, when you feel like having a dip, you just drop your bag and walk into the river, and when you are done you just walk out again.

Within minutes of being back on the track you are dry again, and surprisingly, there are no chafing issues with clothing, and perspiration seems to just dry and disappear which is wonderful, knowing just how good the body is at regulating its temperature when we don't stuff it up by putting clothes on.

I took a GPS with us as we walked up the valley, ensuring to mark any small side tributaries for later investigation (the owner wants to put in a dam to try to get running water organised at some later stage), and I decided to mark spots that I had recognised from previous trips.

After about an hour and 10 minutes, Ms nudman (my then little 6 year old girl) was starting to get tetchy, which seems to happen when she is feeling a bit burned out, so we decided to take a rest and have some lunch.

As we sat down to have the sandwiches Mrs Nudman had pre-prepared, we watched the minnows and cocabullies playing in the stream, chasing the odd bit of bread crumbs that we allowed them to have.

No long after a good sized eel decided that he wanted to investigate the excitement, and for about 20 minutes he stayed with us, enthralling our little girl with his ability to man-oeuvre among the rocks and sticks in the bottom of the creek.

As lunch drew to a close (it was a light lunch), we packed up and headed off in search of that elusive swimming hole.

I said that if we didn't find it within another 5 minutes, we would need to turn to head back to our camp.

Unbeknownst to us, it was literally just around the next bend.

Wow What a Spot!

There in front of us was a huge swimming hole which was the width of the entire creek, fed by a small waterfall.

I slowly walked in and this was perhaps the greatest issue, I should have just dived in, as Mrs Nudman did, and as she surfaced she let out a gasp, advising that the water was substantially cooler than the water down the creek.

One would have expected this due to the simple fact that we were now a lot closer to the source, and the creek had not had the opportunity to flow through the lovely glades which we had passed earlier.

Nevertheless, I dared to 'get wet' and how rewarding it was.

There is a definite wow factor to skinny dipping, and in the cool clear water it just adds to the sensations that you feel from head to toe.

mostly due to the coolness of the water, our swim was cut short as Ms Nudman's teeth started chattering, and as she declared i'm not cold, I don't want to get out', we made a hasty retreat, before the next stage ensued.

We walked back in the heat of the day, however you wouldn't know it due to the forest canopy which covered us for most of the walk.

the valley breeze cooled us when we needed cooling and the sun heated us when we needed heating.

As we arrived back at the camp we were again warm and ready for the next swim.

This time we just walked the 15-20m down to the nearest pool in the river and dived in.

This set the tone of the trip, with much more lazing around camp, and many more swims in the creek, until the moment of sadness when it was time to pack up.