Driving naked.

A new step on my naturist journey.

Emma and I recently went on a summer break and spent 4 nights at a clothing-optional B&B up in the Northland district.

On the morning of our departure, I decided to drive the 5 hour, 390km (240 miles) naked.  I sat on a sarong that could be pulled across if needed and had a shirt and shorts ready close by for fuel and coffee stops.

As I sat in the driver's seat, ready to depart, Emma took a photo for my social media, and we headed off.

This was the first time I had driven naked for anything other than quickly moving a vehicle at a naturist venue, and the idea of driving nude for around 5 hours was both challenging and enticing.

The drive would take us through New Zealand’s biggest and most populous city, Auckland, which I had imagined would carry the most risk of being seen.  Interestingly, this wasn’t the case.

There are two main routes to get north from our hometown of Tauranga.  One heads west over the Kaimai ranges, through the Waikato district and onto a motorway leading north that while an easy drive, is fairly uninspiring and tedious.  The other heads north up the coastal route before heading inland and joining the previously mentioned motorway just south of Auckland.  Both routes are similar in time and distance, but the second is more scenic and as we were on a holiday roadie, I opted for the latter.

Heading down the driveway I felt slightly nervous but soon relaxed as people outside the car had no way of telling that I was naked. Anyone looking might have noticed that I was not wearing a shirt and thought nothing of it.  Given the temperature of around 28 degrees C (83 F), seeing topless men is not uncommon.  Curiously, had Emma been topless in the vehicle, then anyone noticing would likely have reacted differently. Many people who ardently claim to fight for equality will have a wildly different reaction between a topless male and a topless female.  It’s not fair and it’s discriminatory, but it is an illogical reality of the modern world.

After 100km (62 miles) we stopped in the small settlement of Ngatea for fuel and coffee.  I put on a shirt and shorts in the car park of a cafe.  While the fuel stations here serve coffee, I prefer the more crafted product of a small cafe than the homogenised blandness of corporate fuel stations.  In addition, most fuel stations here in NZ have high-mounted cameras covering the forecourts from multiple angles, and I wasn’t keen to be an image posted in the staff room as an object of curiosity or derision.  After the coffee we drove 400m to the fuel station and filled the vehicle, then I pulled over just up the road to remove my shirt and shorts and resume our journey.

My biggest fear of being observed, apart from fuel forecourts, was driving through the major city of Auckland.  This fear was unfounded as the journey through the city was essentially a motorway for some 85km (52 miles) and detection was less likely given the speed of traffic in multiple lanes heading in the same direction.

As we headed north from Auckland and the motorway reduced to a single-lane road in each direction, it became apparent that the risk of being observed was in the smaller towns, where traffic bottlenecked to a crawl, and high vehicles such as trucks and busses passed in the opposite direction.

We pushed on through to Kaiwaka, a small rural town where it was a suitable time for a comfort stop and an opportunity to thin the blood out of my coffee system.  Quickly slipping into shorts and a shirt in the car park of the Eutopia cafe, we were soon relieved and refuelled.  I had read about this place many times, and driven past it a few times on work trips, but had never had the opportunity to stop.  I will make sure to stop there again.

Once back in the car, I returned to my preferred dress code and we drove another hour through to Whangarei, where I put on my shorts and shirt in the car park of the local grocery supermarket.  The accommodation that we were staying at was out of Whangarei, and the local shops were a bit hit-and-miss.  We stocked up on food and bought a couple of bottles of wine to see us through the next few days.

Back in the car and off came the clothes.  30 minutes later as we arrived at the accommodation venue, I was immediately relaxed and dressed appropriately.

We had a wonderful stay in Northland with visits to local beaches interspersed with catching up with family and a trip to the place recognised as the northernmost point of the North Island.  Cape Reinga is 3km south of the North Cape's Surville Cliffs, 30km to the west, but is regarded as the most northern point by many and is the point at where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea.  The tidal race between the two seas creates unsettled waters just off the coast which are easily observed from the Lighthouse.

After 4 nights away and on our way back towards Auckland, we had an invitation to call in and catch up with one of my blog subscribers and his wife.  We had exchanged emails and messages but had never met face to face.

Owen and Beverley, thank you for your hospitality, conversation and the opportunity to break a long journey.  It was lovely to meet you both.

Sometimes, meeting my readers in person helps validate the effort I put into these blogs.  It is not always easy to come up with new material on a weekly schedule and getting positive feedback firsthand is so rewarding.

As far as the naked driving goes, It was much more comfortable and I will be doing it more often.  The only downside was having to put on clothes to grab a coffee or get fuel.

It is such a pity that wearing nothing is not considered a valid clothing choice by most of society.

My way probably won't work for most people but the more I got naked the more comfortable I felt. – Rihanna

Thank you for reading.  Have a comfortable day.

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Next Week:

Conversations with non-naturists.
And does the sky fall in if you talk about it?

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Links:

Etopia Cafe
https://www.eutopia.nz