I've heard that New Zealand is probably one of the most barefoot friendly countries. Anyone here been there to verify that? I've been presented with an opportunity to there for several days. If it is as friendly as I've heard my day dream/fantasy would be to only take a pair of flip flops for the flight there, then throw them away at the airport and just go barefoot for the entire week.
I Think You Are Going To Love It.......Whole Families Go Barefoot To The Movies And To Eat Out etc.....Let Us Know How You Get On...... Cheers Glen.
I really hope everything lines up for the trip to New Zealand. It's exciting and arousing just thinkkng about throwing away those flip flops and having no choice but to go barefoot for more than a week in another country.
I live in New Zealand. I honestly did not know that being barefoot in other countries were not allowed in certain places or looked down on or whatever....here in New Zealand it's normal, a lot of people do it, it's normal here. There is no dress code in any shops here I don't think? A few days ago I saw a barefooter in the supermarket, and then saw another guy walking barefoot as I was driving home. I've seen people catch the bus barefoot it's sexy lol You see individuals walking barefoot on the street or in supermarkets, shopping malls, sometimes you see groups of barefooters or couples walking about hehe
I live in New Zealand. I honestly did not know that being barefoot in other countries were not allowed in certain places or looked down on or whatever....here in New Zealand it's normal, a lot of people do it, it's normal here. There is no dress code in any shops here I don't think? A few days ago I saw a barefooter in the supermarket, and then saw another guy walking barefoot as I was driving home. I've seen people catch the bus barefoot it's sexy lol You see individuals walking barefoot on the street or in supermarkets, shopping malls, sometimes you see groups of barefooters or couples walking about hehe I live in New Zealand. I honestly did not know that being barefoot in other countries were not allowed in certain places or looked down on or whatever....here in New Zealand it's normal, a lot of people do it, it's normal here. There is no dress code in any shops here I don't think? A few days ago I saw a barefooter in the supermarket, and then saw another guy walking barefoot as I was driving home. I've seen people catch the bus barefoot it's sexy lol You see individuals walking barefoot on the street or in supermarkets, shopping malls, sometimes you see groups of barefooters or couples walking about hehe
Sad part is, it could all disappear. What you describe sounds like the U.S. in the 1970s. But then, the people who think other people need rules start taking away your freedom..., for you own good of course, or to keep from offending someone!
I'm not sure it would really 'offend' anyone, but definitely in most places in this country, if someone sees you walking around a public place barefoot they will automatically think you are either dirt poor or are just sloppy.
I don’t think it was “rules” so much as style sense. The fashion in the 80s was to dress up a little more. You quit seeing flip flops for a while. By late 80s/early 90s, you didn’t really see any kind of sandal on men very much. Glad those days have passed.
Yes, I'm glad those days have passed as well. I started wearing flip flops in 1980 and wore them every summer all through the 80's and into the early 90's when they came out with the Teva brand which featured the velcro straps. Before then, if you went into a shoe store looking for a pair of men's sandals, you were lucky if you found two different styles. I always thought of myself as a trend setter, which was a guy wearing flip flops in the early 80's
I have read a lot about New Zealand as a paradise for bare feet, but when I use Google to look at street scenes in New Zealand cities and towns, I don't see it. There are some 10-20 photos with barefoot people that get repeated on multiple pages about bare feet: some barefoot customers in a Walmart-ish store somewhere in New Zealand, some guy sitting on a bench in McDonalds with a bandaged shoeless foot, teenagers in a supermarket produce aisle, a shoeless young man walking with a (shoe-wearing) friend past some shops, a family preparing to cross the street, maybe a few more. But the overwhelming majority of candid shots of New Zealand streets don't show anything like this. Lots of flip-flops, but no bare feet. What am I missing?
New Zealand Google images seem to get updated rather frequently. Here are a couple. There is also a mall in Auckland with some inside shots on Google. Even though it is not a busy time, at least one maybe two bare footers are present. I will try to find them again. I do have a few other Google screen shots misfiled somewhere.
Thanks, but of course the web also has photos of isolated individuals barefoot in New York, London, Moscow and everywhere else. The thing is, if you look at random street scenes from any of these cities, the odds of spotting a barefooter are very low, close to zero. And when I do the same thing for New Zealand locations, I get the same result. Looking at a New Zealand street scene, even focusing on events where you expect people to be casual like a summer outdoor fair, I'd expect to almost always see some barefoot folks, to judge from what I read here about the place. But overall your basic warm-weather New Zealand street scene looks like a street scene anywhere else: everyone is in shoes, sandals or flip-flops. For example, is there even one barefoot person in this street-scene video? Maybe I missed them... Busy Street Scene In Auckland. Crowd Of Pedestrians In The Street - March 2017: Auckland, New Zealand Stock Footage Video 28634695 | Shutterstock
This screenshot is likely 10-2016 although for some reason the date does not show. It was the only one I could find that appears to show a barefoot person in a NZ mall on Google Earth. The point is--obviously, there you have the option. That is all we want in the U.S.
But there are photos of barefoot people in US malls too (and stores, and streets), for example https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ff/7d/9f/ff7d9fdad0413ee3b2fcfa810f05fecd--barefoot-girls-soul.jpg or http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6IM2EWqwfnQ/T1L2Yhg6N8I/AAAAAAAAAMo/561RNO4mEsI/s1600/bf-shopping.jpg. If the attitude in NZ is really different, if you really have a choice you don't have here, I'd expect to see some effect of this in the percentage of barefoot people you see in normal photos of people going about their business, making allowances for the setting not being formal, for warm weather, and so on. I just don't see this. Why?
Regardless of where in the world we reside, whilst there may be many of us collectively, we always will be a minority (largely due to the public perception of feet). However, since we are an incredibly rare breed, take solace and comfort in the fact that such a forum exists, allowing you to converse with others who both share and appreciate the benefit of allowing their feet to move as nature intended.
