Here’s a sad story: New Zealand Schoolboy Disqualified From School Race For Running Barefoot - Star Feet
True, but sadly not a response to my question. What I'm wondering is whether this New Zealand thing isn't a bit of a myth. Maybe there are bare feet allowed in elementary school — seems like that part is true. But the rest I'm not sure about any more. Kind of important if one is thinking of a visit (or even a move) to NZ for forum-relevant reasons.
Well I found the Google map images for the Mobil station with the barefoot guy crossing that is your rightmost picture. The wiggle in the street markings isn't there, and neither is the barefoot guy. (You can try this direct Google Maps link and move forward from there. The parked cars are the same.) Don't know what to make of that. If I missed him, let me know the URL. Edit: Looking more carefully at this photo and comparing it to Google Maps, the right side of the photo is an image from further down the street than the left side of the photo! (It's from the street just past the Mobil station that is in plain view on the left side of the photo.) And if you look at the lane markings on the street you can see them multiplied. So this is clearly photoshopped for some peculiar reason. No idea therefore on what street or even in what country the barefoot man originally was.
I don't know about that particular image as I didn't clip it. According to the file date, it is at least six years old. The others I did myself. I really don't think anyone would bother to photoshop something like this. Some of the images are gone already. Google seems to update its images in NZ frequently. Even in what I call the barefoot golden age in the U.S., you wouldn't find that many random images of adults barefoot. Even then, the bare footers did not usually come out until late in the day or evening. The point is, whether you can be yourself without being hassled. If you want to find out, the best way is to choose a nice warm time of year and go to NZ. That's the only way you will ever know. Don't overthink this.
As you wish. But I don't see this as a "myth." The evidence shows me that bare footing is more common and more acceptable in NZ, and probably Australia, than in most parts of the U.S. I don't think anyone ever said that even 2% of the adult population there goes barefoot everywhere and anytime. Also, bare footing, at least in the U.S., was always a minority thing in most communities. I happened once to live in an area where it really did seem to be the norm among the 30 and under. I used to see the wide disparities between neighborhoods that were geographically close to each other. You might go to the grocery and see two or three people barefoot, and many men were shirtless. Go a few miles away, and nothing of the sort. And one did not see it as much on the streets for the simple reason most of those people drove to where they were going. I am finished now.
Huh? If you are a bare footer trying to decide whether to spend a large amount of money on a trip to experience a barefooters paradise, it matters supremely.
Are you really wasting your time by searching google maps for barefoot walking poeple pics? You better should take a barefoot walk outside instead, it's more heathy and way more uplifting ;-) If you like to know about the NZ conditions, probably it's a good idea ti ask a kiwi ... afaik in NZ barefooting is tolerated everywhere, but there are differences where it's more usual or less.
All you have to do is Google 'walking barefoot in New Zealand' and you'll see plenty of articles and pictures of people barefoot. In the street, shopping, in parks, even some shots in schools, all showing people who are barefoot. Here is an archived blog article from a guy who moved there and was surprised by all of the people that he saw who were barefoot. Going naked: barefoot in New Zealand - Moving to New Zealand! Using Google Earth pictures and not seeing people barefoot is like using it to find a murder scene. 'The guy isn't here, so it didn't happen!'
If you Google 'walking barefoot in New York' you'll also see plenty of articles and pictures of people barefoot. Nobody doubts that some people do it everywhere. That's why this forum exists. But if the claim is that barefooting is reasonably common on the streets of New Zealand, looking at a pile of candid pictures and videos of the streets of New Zealand is exactly what you need to do to verify the claim (if you can't go there right away yourself), which is why I did just that. Otherwise you're cherry-picking your data: Cherry picking - Wikipedia
Yeah, candid pictures, not a single camera driving around a city. Just because it didn't catch someone at any particular time doesn't mean that three people weren't there just after it left. Do a search for pictures, there's plenty of evidence that people walk around barefoot on a reasonably regular basis.
This took all of two seconds. Random picture on Google. Four barefoot people in a grocery store line. Not just one, four. That alone should speak a little little about the frequency. And just because there aren't scores of pictures on a subject doesn't mean it doesn't happen. If something is normalcy there is no reason to take pictures of it.
Or here is a better link a page of a guy taking random pictures of barefoot people in NZ and Australia. barefootgirls1's DeviantArt gallery
I agree, it's a wonderful photo. Like a dream. I've seen it repeated on lots of sites. Now Google "New World supermarkets", which gives you tons of photos of people shopping in this chain all over New Zealand, and find me even one other photo with a barefoot person in it. Maybe there is one. I couldn't find any. But your comment "And just because there aren't scores of pictures on a subject doesn't mean it doesn't happen" tells me we're talking past each other. Nobody said it doesn't happen. The question was whether it's "normal", whether NZ is really "one of the most barefoot friendly countries", and so on -- read what people wrote in this thread. If it really was normal, you wouldn't see just a few photos like yours, endlessly repeated. Instead your average photo of a NZ street scene should at least have a barefoot person or two. They don't. Let's stop, since we don't seem to be making any progress. Edit: Your "DeviantArt" link on the second post above (not there when I started writing my reply), fwiw, is photos from the UK and Australia, not New Zealand.
I went out today and saw a few people barefoot, and saw some in McDonald's too. It's hot here in Wellington at the moment so of course barefoot people will be walking around. I saw a dude in nothing but his shorts standing at the bus stop with his girlfriend. Maybe I will take photos when I'm out next time yeah?
