Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Supported by
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
LETTER 339
In Australia and New Zealand, Barefoot Is a Way of Life
A celebration of (at least occasional) shoelessness.
Share full articleShare free access
Read in app
A barefoot man at a bakery in Byron Bay, Australia, last year. Credit...Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images
Feb. 3, 2024, 2:26 a.m. ET
Get it sent to your inbox.
The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. This week’s issue is written by Natasha Frost, a reporter based in Melbourne.
I had just moved to New Zealand, at age 12, when a new friend suggested that we slip out to the corner store (dairy in New Zealand English) for some candy (lollies).
It wasn’t a warm day — July or August in Auckland hovers around 50 degrees Fahrenheit — yet when I stopped to put on my shoes, she looked at me with bemusement. Why would I need shoes for a quick trip down the road?
New Zealanders — and their Australian cousins — like to go barefoot. They’ll often eschew footwear to go to the gas station, the grocery store, the playground and even the pub.
Seth Kugel, a writer for The New York Times, who visited New Zealand in 2012, put it like this: “People walk around barefoot. On the street. In supermarkets. All over. It’s not everyone, but it’s a significant enough minority to be quite striking and a bit disconcerting. Sure, city sidewalks are clean. But they’re still city sidewalks.”
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
(He was also surprised by a lack of tipping culture, the fine distinction between a flat white and a latte and the preponderance of te reo Maori, the country’s Indigenous language.)
More on New Zealand A Rightward Shift: New Zealand has long been lauded for trying to do right by its Indigenous people, but a new conservative government is considering rolling back policies that benefit Māori. A Feathered Icon Breeds Again: New Zealand’s national bird, the kiwi, has hatched eggs in the wild in the Wellington area for the first time in living memory, thanks to a multiyear conservation effort. Māori Wardens: With lurid crime stories dominating headlines, New Zealand’s new prime minister has pitched a tougher approach to law enforcement. The strategies used by Indigenous volunteers can present compelling alternatives. The War on Invasive Species: A hunting contest on New Zealand’s South Island has exposed tensions over which animals deserve protection and how children should be taught about conservation.
In Perth, in Western Australia, at least one elementary school has a “shoes optional” policy, with administrators citing claims that going barefoot “helped children improve posture, develop sensory awareness and strengthen their feet and body.” (Podiatrists are less convinced.)
Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.
Share full articleShare free access
Read in app
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT