Venues and people of note   

This page collates items relating to naturist venues and people of note in the naturist community, if they're not covered elsewhere.

These were some of the places (mostly mentioned in the magazine) where naturist clubs or groups were intended but never quite made it... (The first, and now most spectacular, was Eastwoodhill, near Gisborne; which has become an internationally noted arboretum.)

In the case of clubs, several were fairly short lived...

Northern Nudist Park/Club (1957) (Camping facilities in Northland #5), (The Northern Nudist Club #7)

Jaybirds, Northern Social Group (River Lodge)

East Coast Sun Club (1970), (Out the Back of Beyond: #57)

Riverland Hideaway Resort (1991) #139, #142, #144

Hillcrest Leisure Park (1999) #168

Some of the homestays are quite substantial 'guest houses' for example... Northland Ostrich & Emu Homestay, Paradise Homestay, Waitata Bay and Villa du Soliel on Waiheke Is.

Note that club, society, homestay, etc; abbreviations are separately listed in both alphabetic (by club Name) and geographic (north to south) order.

Originally, several clubs were 'proprietary' rather than member-owned. Originating in 1944, Eric Flint's Kaurimu was the main proprietary club in Auckland (#1). Between 1957 & 1960 it became 'member controlled', but finally closed in 1969. Next door, in the early days, Auckland Sun Club too, started as a proprietary club, but it was changed to member-owned in 1959, and remains so at present. Note that Les Olsen's record of AOHC's 50th anniversary in #170 also covers those complications in their early years.

Since the 90s there has been a steady rise in numbers and location of privately owned naturist venues, from resorts to crash-pads. Some of this coincided with the advent of 'Aoraki Naturally' at Lake Tekapo, a 'homestay' venture established by Kay Hannam & Brian Williams in 1996 (#168). But they were leasing a farmer's property. In 2006 they bought a property in Wairau Valley, south of Blenheim, and established Wai-natur, another homestay/resort where campers and caravanners are welcomed.

These days a proprietary venue is usually called a 'homestay'. Given it's National Tourism Awards, Katikati Naturist Park (very near Katikati!), would be considered a 'resort'. Some of the homestays are quite substantial 'guest houses' for example Waitata Bay in Northland (just above its own beach), and Wai-natur, 60km south of Blenheim.

A list of current proprietary venues & clubs indicates a slow shift of numbers from member clubs to proprietary places in terms of naturist options for places to stay. (For an owner, one of the tricky aspects of accepting paid accommodation, is the local council's commercial accommodation provider regulations...)