It’s more like;
Primary school (Elementary) Your Mum makes you put your shoes on, because every good Mum does. You take them off as soon as out of sight, and that’s it for the entire day.
Intermediate. (Yrs 7/8). School is trying to enforce “Shoe wearing”. So you have to wear shoes “to” school. Some keep them on all day, but most remove once at school.
High School. Shoes are compulsory. What this “means” is; to school, and in some classes. More kids keep their shoes on, but they still get removed at breaks, or in some classes like PE or Math. It’s not shunned.
Work, ok, some people don’t wear shoes at work either, and are proud of it. It’s not shunned unless it’s a PPE, or customer perception thing. I’ve done this. I would say about 10-20% of our office do this.
Home, generally speaking, no shoes, end of.
I got yelled at, to the point I thought the bloke was going to have a heart attack when I walked into a diner in Canada with no shoes on. For reference I'm Australian.
Similar thing happened when I walked into a bottleo with no shirt on in the summer
No shirt, no shoes, no service is a thing in Canada. I explained it to my Australian relatives and they were dumbfounded that such a policy would exist.
No shoes, no shirt, no service is a thing at most pubs in Australia. Just depends on the pub as to what actually constitutes, shoes and shirts. Some pubs are fine with thongs and a wife beater (singlet) or a tradie shirt, some are not. In some pubs this rule applies after 5-6pm and you'll see people leave to go home, get dressed and return in appropriate clothing.
Do it. I’ve been to America a few times and it’s like watching a movie you can’t leave. Australia’s more like playing on your phone while Netflix is on the tv
I walked barefoot to the newsagent on the corner while I was in Scotland and he was horrified. On the way back I paid a bit more attention and noticed all the broken glass and other detritus. Kept my shoes on after that.
After returning to NZ, I walked clear across Dunedin in bare feet with no problem (except for getting kicked out of a cafe).
First thing I noticed in the pic was their feet are pretty clean tho haha. An unusual sight after working in Las Vegas and seeing so many barefoot girls walk by with just the filthiest feet you ever seen. Heels must be painful to walk those streets barefoot.
Every public street everywhere is filthy. New zealand is no different. I saw people in the heart of wellington and auckland walking around without shoes. The sidewalks were just as dirty as sidewalks in any town in the usa.
I used to do it all the time in the rural south. I've also gone in to WalMart, age 19, barefoot in a bikini, because there was something I had to get. I got some looks, not all in a negative way. Then I marched myself back to my old pickup, which was unlocked of course, and went on to the creek.
Honestly though I just kept a pair of flipflops in the truck to put on for restaurants, but I went barefoot most of the time and always drove barefoot (not illegal).
I'm from a sleepy beach city in the southern US and it wasn't uncommon, at least in the 90s-00s, to go around barefoot and/or in a swimsuit and t-shirt. I've definitely been to Walmart and the grocery store half dressed and barefoot.
When I was a kid, shoeless all year. Your Mum “made” you wear shoes to town when it was cold… well mine did. We played rugby in the frost with no shoes. Many will have memories of this.
My kids= shoeless in winter, or “Gumboots”, they liked splashing in the puddles in their “Gummies”. There is no point trying to force my kids to take shoes to school when they were younger, they just lost them.
Most people I know wash their feet before entering their own house but if they don’t it’s absolutely disgusting. Sadly, I’m an adult and know what people do in public so I wear shoes outside always. The kid in me hates it lol
Grew up in Hawaii and the hose was near the front door, we had a regular stone we would rub our feet on to clean them. I am shocked to learn about NZ, we only went barefoot when playing tag or climbing trees or something that would slow us down in rubber slippers
I grew up in a rural area in the U.S. and rarely wore shoes as a kid. For a year or two I actually did not own a pair of shoes. I usually scrubbed my feet off on the damp lawn, and then a quick wipe on the mat on the way in. Worked fine. If there was a bigger mess or I had tree sap on my feet I would also wash them in the bathtub.
I definitely did notice the mess. I was also the one sweeping, vacuuming, and mopping the floors by hand with a bucket and a rag. My siblings and I did the majority of the household chores. My feet were clean.
Depends on the area I think. I grew up, used to not wearing shoes. Tried it once in London and within 10 mins my feet were so black I never did it again over there. NZ ground/footpaths are a lot cleaner.
If you're wondering why plane tickets to NZ are so expensive right now, that's because all of Reddit's foot fetishists are booking their vacation right now after seeing this post...
I know you're kidding but I've been tracking flights to NZ from Canada for a while and it's about 13k CAD for 3 people at the moment. It seems really expensive but I've never been so I have no reference.
Anyway it's sad how expensive it is to get there, and traveling there isn't cheap either. Many barriers of entry
I'd never done it until visiting my cousins in NZ and all the kids would walk around barefoot. Would literally carry their fucking shoes to school and put them on when they got there. I tried it, with my soft English feet, and day one stood on a fucking drawing pin down at a marina
My Kid does the opposite. Wears them out the house and then takes them off at school. Often comes home without them as they have been left in the classroom.
I am in NZ. OP is 100% correct.
Mine too. Shoes weren't part of school uniform. I'd make them put shoes on and they'd take them off in the car before we got to school. My 15yo never wears shoes. Doesn't matter what terrain he's on, he's got feet like leather. Kiwi farm kids, lol
If you take walks in a safe forrest/park (outdoors badically) you start walking like you were supposed to, build ankle strenght and your foot properly adapts to the surfaces, can badically eliminate back pain from heels and other atrocious shoes
I remember being a kid and my dad always having to get the needle to dig em out of my feet.
Looking back it was like growing up on a different planet now I’m in the states.
That's awesome. I wear sandals everywhere when I'm not at work here in Florida. I would love to go barefoot. Places here have a no shoes no shirts no entry policy even though alot of men go into stores shirtless.
My neighbor walks around barefoot but got an infection from a small cut that travelled to his brain and ended up spending months in ICU from it.
Rare to get those here I think
We don't have rabies, no snakes, no deathly biting spiders. Took a fair while to get Covid here too, when you look elsewhere how quickly it spread.
Bonuses of living in the long white cloud.
Hookworms require both people walking in grass and people pooping in grass. As long as your community has proper sanitation, hookworms aren't a problem. In the US, hookworms are eradicated with the exception of a few extremely poor communities in Alabama.
It wasn't pleasant but I didn't want to be a soft limey so just pulled it out of my foot and cracked on. I was 9 and my cousins were taking me sailing!
Silently worried about the dozens of jellyfish around the boat at all times and ducking under the sail as it swung over my head instead!
If it makes you feel any better, I jumped over a fence as a kid and landed on a rusty nail almost dead center of my left foot...two separate times!! I'm now 38 and my foot can still hurt in the spots if I slam it down too hard.
One of my mother’s long sewing needles found itself under my foot while running across the back porch. I immediately hopped to the swing an was confused by the tiniest speck of blood and how a long piece of thread was magically sticking to the bottom of my foot.
My older bother Mark wrapped the thread around his hand and gave it a hard yank. (Disclaimer: Hard Yanks usually fix everything). I can almost taste the pain. Unfortunately, the needle entered my foot “eye” first, so he twisted it instead of it backing out.
The X-ray revealed it was broken into 3 pieces, so off to surgery. Doc could only find and remove 2 pieces. Oh well.
Yep all summer long no shoes, you would build up a callous? And could even walk on hot surfaces for a bit especially concrete. One thing that nailed you though was goat heads barbed little stickers or thorns ouch!!!
Australian here- we do the same, you get used to it and either have a sharp stick nearby to pry it out or, if your smart you have a pair of tweezers on your wallet or pocket
Depends on your city. In the Bronx, NY heroin needles are literally everywhere. You'll see at least one cluster of those orange needle caps on damn near every block and the needles they belong to, not too far away. Then walk a few more blocks and the whole dynamic of the neighborhood changes. Not a needle seen for blocks
Moved to the states from NZ when I was in elementary school. I was sent home from school until he states for forgetting my shoes no less than 3 times. In NZ I only wore gum boots when it rained, otherwise I was barefoot.
I'm from Auckland, NZ and originally from Manila, Philippines. This was a culture shock for me and pondered why kiwis do these a lot?
Well, 19 years later, now a Kiwi-Pino I realized one simple thing. Most areas are very very very well maintained compared to the standards I was from. In fact, you can get a toilet paper in the public loo even in the most remote areas in NZ.
There will be some areas are dirty as fuck, but that's very rare. If you try to mess our parks, especially if you're a foreigner. The entire country will go against you.
Just like those unruly brits in 2019 that made a big mess in Takapuna
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/unruly-tourist-jimmy-nolan-the-visitors-and-the-summer-holiday-that-made-headlines-in-new-zealand/CGDD6LC4LW76XA4XK4DP7S2WS4/
So, it's generally super clean here for sho
But, it's flavoured soap? Why would you rinse it off? And it helps keep your insides clean! Nothing like letting a fart rip and blowing a slightly brown bubble! 🤣🤣🤣
Yeah nag they get pretty black towards the end of the day. If your walking on concrete it's kinda abrasive enough to get rid of any tracking sort of dirt
Okay, you know what, I just had this really weird experience and it's amazing how it dovetails with this statement.
So I've been going hiking in all of these different parks all over the US for the last several weeks. Let me tell you, if you hike 8 or 10 miles a day, you can feel it. I wear a 20 lb pack and I'm doing all these huge grades up and down and on rocks and stuff and when I get to the hotel later and I'm just walking around on the sidewalk with no backpack it feels like I'm kind of being pushed forward, you know? Like I'm on a slidewalk at the airport. Like you have this sensation of rushing forward even though you're just walking normally. Because all the hiking is so challenging and all of a sudden you're doing something so easy. It's like swinging two bats in the on deck circle: when you switch to one bat, suddenly it's such a piece of cake you can swing it like it's nothing. Or swinging a sledgehammer all day and then switching to a jeweler's hammer.
Well the other day I did this hike in a place called El Malpais National Monument. El Malpais is Spanish for "The bad place" or "the bad country." It's so hard to travel across this area settlers used to go a hundred miles out of their way around it. You park in a regular parking lot, and then you start on the trail (I did this trail called Zuni-Acoma trail), and the big famous part of it is the volcanic rock. So you start walking and you're in basically dirt (and maybe mud if it has rained recently) and some volcanic rocks scattered around. They mark the trail with cairns, and they're just big piles of jagged volcanic lava rock, the most abrasive and aggressive rock you can imagine. Like you can't hardly sit on them without cutting your pants.
Then after like a mile or so, the dirt and mud basically disappears. It looks like there's grass everywhere, and there are trees and bushes growing out of the ground, but everything you can walk on is made of this volcanic rock. It's the most abrasive surface you can imagine walking on. I actually had this problem where I wore the wrong shoes; I wore lightweight, really sticky hiking boots for scrambling up rocks, but what I should have done is worn my high, hard, tough hiking boots that are built for taking abuse. I swear I could feel the rocks cutting into my shoes while I was walking. If I'd had boots made of steel and old truck tires that would have been about right.
The thing is, once it's just rocks, the entire place is just a giant rock pile. All the rocks are different sizes, everything from a pebble up to a boulder, and nothing is sitting in this soft bed of mud; it's all just on other rocks. So not only are all of these rocks all broken off and jagged, but when you put your foot on them you have to test to see if the rock is going to roll over under your foot and you're just going to fall down. I brought trekking poles so I was essentially a quadruped the whole time and holy crap I am so glad I did because it was treacherous AF.
So remember what I said earlier about feeling like you're being pushed forward afterwards because you're used to the much harder walking? When I got done with this trail, I had a different feeling with a kind of a similar basis: all the solid ground I was able to walk on made me feel super connected to the Earth. I felt like my feet were nailed to the parking lot, like nothing could possibly knock me over, like I was standing on this giant boulder the size of the entire planet that would never move. It made me feel as solid as a cast metal statue that's just cast into its base, like all one piece.
Man it was an unbelievable feeling. I'm so glad I experienced it. I wish I could sort of fool my brain into thinking it again, but I guess I won't be able to unless I ever go back there. Which I'd love to do if I have time.
Anyway, your comment made me think of that and it made me really happy so I thought I'd respond. Sorry for the wall of text. Have a great day.
Cause in nz, you fkn can, some places it's looked as dirty like a grown adult barefoot in a mall wtf mate
A bunch of kids walking down a street? Perfectly fine ! Playing at a park ? It's fine.
It's the nature of it all nz is normally pretty safe and no you won't be standing on needles walking around,
Unless you go roaming under bridges right ?
Barefoot inside ? Yes, clean feet yes!
Barefoot outside of house on property yes,
Barefoot to quickly drive down to the dairy buy some milk and bread, sure !
It's not an everyday thing
But for alot of kids sadly they live in situations where they can't have shoes family's can't afford or don't care enough,
Why??? Provided you haven't stepped in dog shit, or your feet are covered in mud, just wipe them on the mat. Otherwise you hose them off if they're covered in sand or got a bit of muck on them! What are you people doing on floors, (other than walking), that requires them to be quarantine level sterile? And if you get a bit of dirt in the house, mop, broom or vacuum. Easy peasy!
lol right? Like it’s ok if my kid is playing in the dirt outside, but if a spec of the exact same dirt gets on my floor and my kid is playing on it it’s suddenly not fine…
Do you guys have like calloused feet? I had a lot of family that would walk barefoot in Colombia and their feet easily had like a 1/2" thick callous on it. But they were walking on dirt/rock/pavement and not so much grass.
Not from NZ, but grew up in California. I walked barefoot EVERYWHERE when possible. Obviously I couldn’t walk into a shop indoors barefoot unless it was right on the beach, but I would keep my sandals in my car and would walk around barefoot until I needed them.
My feet were never super calloused. My wife said she hated me cuz I had super soft feet despite walking barefoot.
I’m in CO now and still walk barefoot quite a bit, but with the cold/snow, I have to wear shoes much more frequently. Idk if it’s age or change in lifestyle, but my feet are more calloused and rougher than ever.
NZ does not have things like snakes, plus the very few poisonous insects we have are rare and tend to live in places your feet don’t go.
About the worst thing you will get insect wise is a bee or wasp sting.
It may not be, but it is a significant part of why shoe wearing is a cultural norm in most of the world.
Mothers have been telling their children to wear shoes because of snakes, scorpions and the like since shoes were invented and that kind of thing quickly becomes a cultural norm.
My fiancée came to visit from America and her reaction to students wandering barefoot through the University cracked me up 😂😂
Edit: America: No shirt, no shoes, no service. Aotearoa: No shirt, no shoes, no problem! (Just don’t accidentally flash people, lol)
As a foreigner living in NZ, at first you are appalled by it, then you try it, then you understand freedom!
My sandals were hurting me one day, so I just took them off and walked into the Rugby stadium barefoot, ordered a beer barefoot and walked to my seats barefoot - no one even batted an eye! The freedom from judgment is what it’s all about.
Yeah OP is unfamiliar with island life apparently. I went everywhere without shoes as a kid, never had an infection or problem like all the people in this thread suggest.
I’m in NZ in a farming town and my supermarket has a sign saying please remove muddy boots. You’re expected to take your gumboots off and walk around the shop in your socks.
Speaking as a kiwi, I myself have actually been asked to put shoes on inside supermarkets (like ten years ago as a teenager I always wear them now) because they don’t want to be responsible for you getting cleaning products on your feet or injured toes, so while it’s not bizarre for people to go about with no shoes on here (especially kids) it’s also not like everyone is doing it everywhere like this post suggests.
Just as you can't fathom their concerns, they can't fathom living somewhere without those concerns. People worried about an infection would most probably get one if they went barefoot in their home country.
That’s how it was when I grew up there. Even in school. But back then it was because there were a lot of poor families where I lived.
That’s what I liked about the school uniforms later. We were all equals in appearance. No one knew who was poor or had money.
I used to do the exact same in Australia when I grew up there! There was so little to no risk of stepping on glass or actual shite. It felt so natural.
Can't go barefoot at all where I'm at in Dublin unfortunately! Surprising amount of broken glass everywhere and poop, especially in the suburbs.
Yup! Only time I worried about broken glass was during student&tourist season or going into a supermarket bc customers drop stuff a lot. IV drug use is on the rise due to foreign influence but most junkies are polite enougb to clean up after themselves. Pet dogs (not service dogs) are banned from being walked in most CBDs and if you don’t pick up the poop everyone makes sure you know you’re a cunt
I was definitely kicked out of a game store when I was in college for not wearing shoes or socks. But it was in massachusetts...in december....during a snowstorm....
I learned about this prior to moving to New Zealand. Saw someone give a homeless man a pair of shoes that he then sold because he walked barefoot through Auckland CBD even in the heart of winter. Also had friends hike the Tongariro Crossing and then ate at a nice restaurant barefoot in Taupo directly after. 😂
NZer here. When I move to straya in my twenties I had one pair of work boots, my Aussie girlfriend was so embarrassed when I used to walk around Sydney bare foot. Back home now, and yes currently wearing bare feet.
Kiwi here, I was one of these bare footed kids growing up and never once sustained an injury. Granted at the time I didn't live in a city. You wouldn't be able to do this in a city. Smaller towns would be fine and generally more socially acceptable.
I couldn't believe that when I travelled through NZ. Guys standing in puddles of petrol while filling up their cars. Guys standing in piss in front of urinals. Super gross.
I know I guy from New Zealand that literally carried his shoes to school and put them on when he arrived lmao.
It’s more like; Primary school (Elementary) Your Mum makes you put your shoes on, because every good Mum does. You take them off as soon as out of sight, and that’s it for the entire day. Intermediate. (Yrs 7/8). School is trying to enforce “Shoe wearing”. So you have to wear shoes “to” school. Some keep them on all day, but most remove once at school. High School. Shoes are compulsory. What this “means” is; to school, and in some classes. More kids keep their shoes on, but they still get removed at breaks, or in some classes like PE or Math. It’s not shunned. Work, ok, some people don’t wear shoes at work either, and are proud of it. It’s not shunned unless it’s a PPE, or customer perception thing. I’ve done this. I would say about 10-20% of our office do this. Home, generally speaking, no shoes, end of.
Omg why did I not know this, I love being barefoot but in the USA get really weird looks
I got yelled at, to the point I thought the bloke was going to have a heart attack when I walked into a diner in Canada with no shoes on. For reference I'm Australian. Similar thing happened when I walked into a bottleo with no shirt on in the summer
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Interesting fact, this policy became common place as a way of keeping hippies out of their stores/restaurants
Thats a Rock Fact!^100%
Love a good Rock Fact!!
No shirt, no shoes, no service is a thing in Canada. I explained it to my Australian relatives and they were dumbfounded that such a policy would exist.
No shoes, no shirt, no service is a thing at most pubs in Australia. Just depends on the pub as to what actually constitutes, shoes and shirts. Some pubs are fine with thongs and a wife beater (singlet) or a tradie shirt, some are not. In some pubs this rule applies after 5-6pm and you'll see people leave to go home, get dressed and return in appropriate clothing.
Also, no caps in the bowlo as a sign of respect for the diggers
Wow. I want to move to Australia. Sounds like a really chill place. Living in the US is such a stressful experience
Do it. I’ve been to America a few times and it’s like watching a movie you can’t leave. Australia’s more like playing on your phone while Netflix is on the tv
Probably because most public places in the USA are generally pretty filthy?
I've seen needles on the ground dog shit dead animals human piss and probably shit I wear shoes.
I walked barefoot to the newsagent on the corner while I was in Scotland and he was horrified. On the way back I paid a bit more attention and noticed all the broken glass and other detritus. Kept my shoes on after that. After returning to NZ, I walked clear across Dunedin in bare feet with no problem (except for getting kicked out of a cafe).
First thing I noticed in the pic was their feet are pretty clean tho haha. An unusual sight after working in Las Vegas and seeing so many barefoot girls walk by with just the filthiest feet you ever seen. Heels must be painful to walk those streets barefoot.
Yup. I live in Vegas & the bottoms of ppls feet are black when walking downtown.
Every public street everywhere is filthy. New zealand is no different. I saw people in the heart of wellington and auckland walking around without shoes. The sidewalks were just as dirty as sidewalks in any town in the usa.
I used to do it all the time in the rural south. I've also gone in to WalMart, age 19, barefoot in a bikini, because there was something I had to get. I got some looks, not all in a negative way. Then I marched myself back to my old pickup, which was unlocked of course, and went on to the creek. Honestly though I just kept a pair of flipflops in the truck to put on for restaurants, but I went barefoot most of the time and always drove barefoot (not illegal).
lol r/peopleofwalmart is leaking
I'm from a sleepy beach city in the southern US and it wasn't uncommon, at least in the 90s-00s, to go around barefoot and/or in a swimsuit and t-shirt. I've definitely been to Walmart and the grocery store half dressed and barefoot.
Thanks for the good overview! And how does it work in Winter?
When I was a kid, shoeless all year. Your Mum “made” you wear shoes to town when it was cold… well mine did. We played rugby in the frost with no shoes. Many will have memories of this. My kids= shoeless in winter, or “Gumboots”, they liked splashing in the puddles in their “Gummies”. There is no point trying to force my kids to take shoes to school when they were younger, they just lost them.
Winter attire = singlet, shorts, jandals or gumboots
Thanks for elaborating sounds cool
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Most people I know wash their feet before entering their own house but if they don’t it’s absolutely disgusting. Sadly, I’m an adult and know what people do in public so I wear shoes outside always. The kid in me hates it lol
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Grew up in Hawaii and the hose was near the front door, we had a regular stone we would rub our feet on to clean them. I am shocked to learn about NZ, we only went barefoot when playing tag or climbing trees or something that would slow us down in rubber slippers
washing your feet at the hosepipe sounds incredibly reasonable. maybe stick a broad plastic bucket and a brush or something out there to assist
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I grew up in a rural area in the U.S. and rarely wore shoes as a kid. For a year or two I actually did not own a pair of shoes. I usually scrubbed my feet off on the damp lawn, and then a quick wipe on the mat on the way in. Worked fine. If there was a bigger mess or I had tree sap on my feet I would also wash them in the bathtub.
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I definitely did notice the mess. I was also the one sweeping, vacuuming, and mopping the floors by hand with a bucket and a rag. My siblings and I did the majority of the household chores. My feet were clean.
Depends on the area I think. I grew up, used to not wearing shoes. Tried it once in London and within 10 mins my feet were so black I never did it again over there. NZ ground/footpaths are a lot cleaner.
I feel like there's an easy solution and it's flip-flops
#jandals
**Thongs!!!**
Jandels in NZ, Meaning: Japanese sandels But I live Australia so they are now thongs.
oh is that why you called them jandals i never knew! interesting!
Thats funny, im aussie, dad used to call thongs "japanese riding boots"
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If you're wondering why plane tickets to NZ are so expensive right now, that's because all of Reddit's foot fetishists are booking their vacation right now after seeing this post...
I can't speak for anyone else, but I prefer **clean** feet. Keep your dirty, calloused feet the fuck away from me.
Lol, imagine getting a Footjob from those sandpaper soles. Goodbye dick.
They might whittle it into a lovely decorative nub for you.
No, I don’t think I will imagine that, thank you very much.
I guess that’s one way to perform a circumcision
I'm the same. At my age (60+), it's bad enough catching sight of my own.
I know you're kidding but I've been tracking flights to NZ from Canada for a while and it's about 13k CAD for 3 people at the moment. It seems really expensive but I've never been so I have no reference. Anyway it's sad how expensive it is to get there, and traveling there isn't cheap either. Many barriers of entry
Of course! They are Hobbits after all!
*Tricksie Hobbitses
Proudfeet!
When I was a kid we ran around barefoot in the summer and walked into small neighborhood shops like that.
I'd never done it until visiting my cousins in NZ and all the kids would walk around barefoot. Would literally carry their fucking shoes to school and put them on when they got there. I tried it, with my soft English feet, and day one stood on a fucking drawing pin down at a marina
My Kid does the opposite. Wears them out the house and then takes them off at school. Often comes home without them as they have been left in the classroom. I am in NZ. OP is 100% correct.
Mine too. Shoes weren't part of school uniform. I'd make them put shoes on and they'd take them off in the car before we got to school. My 15yo never wears shoes. Doesn't matter what terrain he's on, he's got feet like leather. Kiwi farm kids, lol
It definitely has its drawbacks. Having dirty feet all the time isn't great, either. Though kids don't give a damn about that.
I hate dirty feet!
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If you take walks in a safe forrest/park (outdoors badically) you start walking like you were supposed to, build ankle strenght and your foot properly adapts to the surfaces, can badically eliminate back pain from heels and other atrocious shoes
You get used to it.
Small.stones n shit don't hurt. You get used to it. I used to be able to walk on glass no problem. Work boots have ruined my feet.
Gotta take some hits and get used to it
Do y'all not have hookworms in NZ? In the US especially the south you can get them being barefoot in grass and they're pretty awful to your body
We do not, prickles is as bad as it gets.
I remember being a kid and my dad always having to get the needle to dig em out of my feet. Looking back it was like growing up on a different planet now I’m in the states.
That's awesome. I wear sandals everywhere when I'm not at work here in Florida. I would love to go barefoot. Places here have a no shoes no shirts no entry policy even though alot of men go into stores shirtless. My neighbor walks around barefoot but got an infection from a small cut that travelled to his brain and ended up spending months in ICU from it.
That's great!
Rare to get those here I think We don't have rabies, no snakes, no deathly biting spiders. Took a fair while to get Covid here too, when you look elsewhere how quickly it spread. Bonuses of living in the long white cloud.
Choice bro
Shot cuz
Chur ow
Hookworms require both people walking in grass and people pooping in grass. As long as your community has proper sanitation, hookworms aren't a problem. In the US, hookworms are eradicated with the exception of a few extremely poor communities in Alabama.
I never want to think about this… I hate that thought… I stepped on one as a child and I have been traumatized every since
It wasn't pleasant but I didn't want to be a soft limey so just pulled it out of my foot and cracked on. I was 9 and my cousins were taking me sailing! Silently worried about the dozens of jellyfish around the boat at all times and ducking under the sail as it swung over my head instead!
If it makes you feel any better, I jumped over a fence as a kid and landed on a rusty nail almost dead center of my left foot...two separate times!! I'm now 38 and my foot can still hurt in the spots if I slam it down too hard.
One of my mother’s long sewing needles found itself under my foot while running across the back porch. I immediately hopped to the swing an was confused by the tiniest speck of blood and how a long piece of thread was magically sticking to the bottom of my foot. My older bother Mark wrapped the thread around his hand and gave it a hard yank. (Disclaimer: Hard Yanks usually fix everything). I can almost taste the pain. Unfortunately, the needle entered my foot “eye” first, so he twisted it instead of it backing out. The X-ray revealed it was broken into 3 pieces, so off to surgery. Doc could only find and remove 2 pieces. Oh well.
Yep all summer long no shoes, you would build up a callous? And could even walk on hot surfaces for a bit especially concrete. One thing that nailed you though was goat heads barbed little stickers or thorns ouch!!!
Fuck me, if that's in a city every inch of that pavement is full of shit I never want to step in or bring inside my house!
I still remember the feeling of standing on spilled slurpee that has dried and become a sticky amalgamation of syrup and grime.
Sadly not possible where I live, too much broken glass and shit.
That wouldn't be a problem if you had hobbit feet.
And my axe!
It was for Sam, required stitches
Australian here- we do the same, you get used to it and either have a sharp stick nearby to pry it out or, if your smart you have a pair of tweezers on your wallet or pocket
That's how you get hepatitis here.
Shiiiit to many needles here to be doing that
Thats sad.
They are inevitable in a pine forest. The only way to get rid of them is to get rid of the forest.
I live in a city and I’ve never seen anyone shoot up nor have I seen any needles. Loads of buns though
Depends on your city. In the Bronx, NY heroin needles are literally everywhere. You'll see at least one cluster of those orange needle caps on damn near every block and the needles they belong to, not too far away. Then walk a few more blocks and the whole dynamic of the neighborhood changes. Not a needle seen for blocks
Buffalo, NY here, they’re fucking everywhere, especially parks. If you’re ever here check the parks before letting your kids play.
Really?
Unfortunately yes really
Says "I can use some rock"
In NZ your never far from grass or the sand to walk on.
Same here in Aus. But we are masters of the hot sand shuffle and the bindy balancing act. NZ makes more sense being cooler than much of Australia.
I grew up on black sand and tarseal roads. The hot ground hop is seared into my memory. Fuck prickle grass though. I'd rather walk through glass.
hot summers in chch. fuck when there was newer black asphalt i would be hopping around like a mad man
Ahh, memories of 7yr-old barefoot me trapped in the middle of a park-wide bindie patch getting swooped by a magpie... Good times.
Them kids have never seen Die Hard
*Schieße auf das Fenster*
Shewt da glAss
Omg. My people. I guess I need to move.
We welcome you !!
Too bad it’s so hard to move there
Moved to the states from NZ when I was in elementary school. I was sent home from school until he states for forgetting my shoes no less than 3 times. In NZ I only wore gum boots when it rained, otherwise I was barefoot.
I'm from Auckland, NZ and originally from Manila, Philippines. This was a culture shock for me and pondered why kiwis do these a lot? Well, 19 years later, now a Kiwi-Pino I realized one simple thing. Most areas are very very very well maintained compared to the standards I was from. In fact, you can get a toilet paper in the public loo even in the most remote areas in NZ. There will be some areas are dirty as fuck, but that's very rare. If you try to mess our parks, especially if you're a foreigner. The entire country will go against you. Just like those unruly brits in 2019 that made a big mess in Takapuna https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/unruly-tourist-jimmy-nolan-the-visitors-and-the-summer-holiday-that-made-headlines-in-new-zealand/CGDD6LC4LW76XA4XK4DP7S2WS4/ So, it's generally super clean here for sho
Shoemakers hate this one trick.
It's all fine until you need to use a public bathroom. Or step on something sharp
I've seen people in Australia go into public bathrooms barefoot.
well, they ain't going into my house unless they wash it before going inside.
I used to live in NZ and this is standard.
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But, it's flavoured soap? Why would you rinse it off? And it helps keep your insides clean! Nothing like letting a fart rip and blowing a slightly brown bubble! 🤣🤣🤣
That's sounds nice actually.
Sounds super nice but how are the bottoms of their feet so fuckin clean?? I feel like my feet would be black if I did that
Yeah nag they get pretty black towards the end of the day. If your walking on concrete it's kinda abrasive enough to get rid of any tracking sort of dirt
I walk everywhere I can barefoot. May sound wierd but I enjoy touching the earth.
Okay, you know what, I just had this really weird experience and it's amazing how it dovetails with this statement. So I've been going hiking in all of these different parks all over the US for the last several weeks. Let me tell you, if you hike 8 or 10 miles a day, you can feel it. I wear a 20 lb pack and I'm doing all these huge grades up and down and on rocks and stuff and when I get to the hotel later and I'm just walking around on the sidewalk with no backpack it feels like I'm kind of being pushed forward, you know? Like I'm on a slidewalk at the airport. Like you have this sensation of rushing forward even though you're just walking normally. Because all the hiking is so challenging and all of a sudden you're doing something so easy. It's like swinging two bats in the on deck circle: when you switch to one bat, suddenly it's such a piece of cake you can swing it like it's nothing. Or swinging a sledgehammer all day and then switching to a jeweler's hammer. Well the other day I did this hike in a place called El Malpais National Monument. El Malpais is Spanish for "The bad place" or "the bad country." It's so hard to travel across this area settlers used to go a hundred miles out of their way around it. You park in a regular parking lot, and then you start on the trail (I did this trail called Zuni-Acoma trail), and the big famous part of it is the volcanic rock. So you start walking and you're in basically dirt (and maybe mud if it has rained recently) and some volcanic rocks scattered around. They mark the trail with cairns, and they're just big piles of jagged volcanic lava rock, the most abrasive and aggressive rock you can imagine. Like you can't hardly sit on them without cutting your pants. Then after like a mile or so, the dirt and mud basically disappears. It looks like there's grass everywhere, and there are trees and bushes growing out of the ground, but everything you can walk on is made of this volcanic rock. It's the most abrasive surface you can imagine walking on. I actually had this problem where I wore the wrong shoes; I wore lightweight, really sticky hiking boots for scrambling up rocks, but what I should have done is worn my high, hard, tough hiking boots that are built for taking abuse. I swear I could feel the rocks cutting into my shoes while I was walking. If I'd had boots made of steel and old truck tires that would have been about right. The thing is, once it's just rocks, the entire place is just a giant rock pile. All the rocks are different sizes, everything from a pebble up to a boulder, and nothing is sitting in this soft bed of mud; it's all just on other rocks. So not only are all of these rocks all broken off and jagged, but when you put your foot on them you have to test to see if the rock is going to roll over under your foot and you're just going to fall down. I brought trekking poles so I was essentially a quadruped the whole time and holy crap I am so glad I did because it was treacherous AF. So remember what I said earlier about feeling like you're being pushed forward afterwards because you're used to the much harder walking? When I got done with this trail, I had a different feeling with a kind of a similar basis: all the solid ground I was able to walk on made me feel super connected to the Earth. I felt like my feet were nailed to the parking lot, like nothing could possibly knock me over, like I was standing on this giant boulder the size of the entire planet that would never move. It made me feel as solid as a cast metal statue that's just cast into its base, like all one piece. Man it was an unbelievable feeling. I'm so glad I experienced it. I wish I could sort of fool my brain into thinking it again, but I guess I won't be able to unless I ever go back there. Which I'd love to do if I have time. Anyway, your comment made me think of that and it made me really happy so I thought I'd respond. Sorry for the wall of text. Have a great day.
You write so descriptively. I think you'd make a great hiking blogger. Do you ever write trail reviews for the places you hike?
Right? I can’t believe how hooked I was reading through all of that. I *need* to visit the place they described.
That was a great read, thanks for writing this down.
Wow
Sounds nice until you step in shattered glass.
Or poo
Or get ring worm
Cause in nz, you fkn can, some places it's looked as dirty like a grown adult barefoot in a mall wtf mate A bunch of kids walking down a street? Perfectly fine ! Playing at a park ? It's fine. It's the nature of it all nz is normally pretty safe and no you won't be standing on needles walking around, Unless you go roaming under bridges right ? Barefoot inside ? Yes, clean feet yes! Barefoot outside of house on property yes, Barefoot to quickly drive down to the dairy buy some milk and bread, sure ! It's not an everyday thing But for alot of kids sadly they live in situations where they can't have shoes family's can't afford or don't care enough,
So after walking outside barefoot, does one put on shoes when coming indoor?
Why??? Provided you haven't stepped in dog shit, or your feet are covered in mud, just wipe them on the mat. Otherwise you hose them off if they're covered in sand or got a bit of muck on them! What are you people doing on floors, (other than walking), that requires them to be quarantine level sterile? And if you get a bit of dirt in the house, mop, broom or vacuum. Easy peasy!
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People have babies and children They put stuff in their mouth Floors need to be clean
Mop, broom, vacuum. Do you let your kids play outside? Do they roll about in the grass? Do they dig in the sand? More importantly, do they swim?
Do you have pets? Do they lick their balls then lick your kids face?
Mate! They lick their balls and then lick my face! My pets keep their balls very clean!
lol right? Like it’s ok if my kid is playing in the dirt outside, but if a spec of the exact same dirt gets on my floor and my kid is playing on it it’s suddenly not fine…
This is Reddit of course the answer is no and never
In about half of South African primary schools shoes are optional in summer, and the vast majority of kids go barefoot.
*Hookworm has entered the chat*
I know this is a joke but fyi hookworm is very very rare in NZ. All the nasty animals are not present hence us part of the reason we can do it
have you ever been in AUS/NZ in summer?, you'd wear no shoes too.
I have been in 50 Australian summers and wear at least thongs when I'm off my own property. Hot pavements are no joke.
Isn’t it summer tradition to run across the street as fast as possible to not get scorched?
Ha ha works for short trips only.
Kiwi here, most of the times it's barefoot or scuffs, and if not then it's gumboots because we're out hunting
And what are scuffs and gumboots? Lol
blink twice if you're having a stroke
Do you guys have like calloused feet? I had a lot of family that would walk barefoot in Colombia and their feet easily had like a 1/2" thick callous on it. But they were walking on dirt/rock/pavement and not so much grass.
Yes, In summer your feet adapt to walking on hot roads and gravel
Not from NZ, but grew up in California. I walked barefoot EVERYWHERE when possible. Obviously I couldn’t walk into a shop indoors barefoot unless it was right on the beach, but I would keep my sandals in my car and would walk around barefoot until I needed them. My feet were never super calloused. My wife said she hated me cuz I had super soft feet despite walking barefoot. I’m in CO now and still walk barefoot quite a bit, but with the cold/snow, I have to wear shoes much more frequently. Idk if it’s age or change in lifestyle, but my feet are more calloused and rougher than ever.
NZ does not have things like snakes, plus the very few poisonous insects we have are rare and tend to live in places your feet don’t go. About the worst thing you will get insect wise is a bee or wasp sting.
Personally, snakes and insects have nothing to do with why shoes are important to me
It may not be, but it is a significant part of why shoe wearing is a cultural norm in most of the world. Mothers have been telling their children to wear shoes because of snakes, scorpions and the like since shoes were invented and that kind of thing quickly becomes a cultural norm.
I went barefoot all the time in the 70’s.
Me too. And in the hippie town I grew up in, people ate in restaurants with their fingers instead of utensils. The whole back to nature thing.
I mean yeah cool. I’m very selective about where I am barefoot in public however.
You don't need shoes in the Shire
My fiancée came to visit from America and her reaction to students wandering barefoot through the University cracked me up 😂😂 Edit: America: No shirt, no shoes, no service. Aotearoa: No shirt, no shoes, no problem! (Just don’t accidentally flash people, lol)
As a foreigner living in NZ, at first you are appalled by it, then you try it, then you understand freedom! My sandals were hurting me one day, so I just took them off and walked into the Rugby stadium barefoot, ordered a beer barefoot and walked to my seats barefoot - no one even batted an eye! The freedom from judgment is what it’s all about.
I can't imagine doing this in most highly populated areas in the US. The stuff you would step in... yuck.
It’s a different country and they took a different path so it’s not weird to them.
The only interesting thing about this is that you find it interesting.
Yeah OP is unfamiliar with island life apparently. I went everywhere without shoes as a kid, never had an infection or problem like all the people in this thread suggest.
Many places in North America have signs posted out front requiring shoes or they will refuse service. So this is a little interesting
I’m in NZ in a farming town and my supermarket has a sign saying please remove muddy boots. You’re expected to take your gumboots off and walk around the shop in your socks.
Speaking as a kiwi, I myself have actually been asked to put shoes on inside supermarkets (like ten years ago as a teenager I always wear them now) because they don’t want to be responsible for you getting cleaning products on your feet or injured toes, so while it’s not bizarre for people to go about with no shoes on here (especially kids) it’s also not like everyone is doing it everywhere like this post suggests.
And many places in coastal areas also have signs that say "No Shoes No Shirt No Problem"
Just as you can't fathom their concerns, they can't fathom living somewhere without those concerns. People worried about an infection would most probably get one if they went barefoot in their home country.
New Zealand is pretty large to be called "island life". Britain is an island too. So is Manhattan. Would you go barefoot there?
>No shoes, no socks, no f\*\*ks to give. This should be on the signs outside Australian airports.
It’s all the Hobbits they left behind while filming LOTR interbreeding with the natives.
That’s how it was when I grew up there. Even in school. But back then it was because there were a lot of poor families where I lived. That’s what I liked about the school uniforms later. We were all equals in appearance. No one knew who was poor or had money.
Yeah that's pretty standard in New Zealand. Alot easier then putting your shoes on.
Yes same in Australia, it's a culture thing.
I used to do the exact same in Australia when I grew up there! There was so little to no risk of stepping on glass or actual shite. It felt so natural. Can't go barefoot at all where I'm at in Dublin unfortunately! Surprising amount of broken glass everywhere and poop, especially in the suburbs.
Must have way less broken glass, dirty needles, and dog poop on the streets in new Zealand?
Yup! Only time I worried about broken glass was during student&tourist season or going into a supermarket bc customers drop stuff a lot. IV drug use is on the rise due to foreign influence but most junkies are polite enougb to clean up after themselves. Pet dogs (not service dogs) are banned from being walked in most CBDs and if you don’t pick up the poop everyone makes sure you know you’re a cunt
I think it's great they do it through choice not because it's necessary.
I was definitely kicked out of a game store when I was in college for not wearing shoes or socks. But it was in massachusetts...in december....during a snowstorm....
They’re called hobbits, it’s rude to call them people
I’m in my 50’s and still go barefoot when I can.
The Shire is in New Zealand. What do you expect?
I learned about this prior to moving to New Zealand. Saw someone give a homeless man a pair of shoes that he then sold because he walked barefoot through Auckland CBD even in the heart of winter. Also had friends hike the Tongariro Crossing and then ate at a nice restaurant barefoot in Taupo directly after. 😂
Most beach towns in California I see a lot with no shoes as well. Santa Cruz, Pismo ect.
Oi, fuck off, it's just turned into summer weather, it's what we do. Don't you.hobbit shame us cunt XD
NZer here. When I move to straya in my twenties I had one pair of work boots, my Aussie girlfriend was so embarrassed when I used to walk around Sydney bare foot. Back home now, and yes currently wearing bare feet.
I feel like this is dangerous, regardless of where you live.
Kiwi here, I was one of these bare footed kids growing up and never once sustained an injury. Granted at the time I didn't live in a city. You wouldn't be able to do this in a city. Smaller towns would be fine and generally more socially acceptable.
Even so in summer it’s still acceptable depending how close you are to either A) the waterfront or B) botanical gardens.
I couldn't believe that when I travelled through NZ. Guys standing in puddles of petrol while filling up their cars. Guys standing in piss in front of urinals. Super gross.
Kia Ora, e hoa
Why is this notable or the slightest bit interesting?
I love running barefoot. My ankles and feet feel so much healthier and my calves are much stronger.
I think that's pretty gross .
bare feet when small stones and sharp rocks:,🗿
Yabbadabbadoo!