I have a friend whose going - leaving Dec 21 and returning Jan 5 I think she said. I'll email her for details.

Kia ora: The dates for the World Gathering in New Zealand are : New Moon (16 December 2009) to New Moon (January 15 2010). The two extra weeks have been put foward (15 January to 29 January 2010).. There is some opposition to this from overseas. Those in NZ support this proposal because of the clash with a similar minded event at Parihaka, Taranaki, when the World Gathering concludes. The site is not yet selected. There is a meeting of Scouts at South Karori in Wellington on 22 September which will come to a consensus on the extension and the location. There are, however, a number of possible areas. The Coromandel area and in the Golden Bay (Nelson area). Golden Bay is in the northern South Island. There is a 3.20 hour ferry crossing from the North Island to the South Island (Wellington to Picton). A road trip from Auckland to Wellington normally takes about 12 hours and road trip from Picton to Takaka (the biggest settlement in the area) normally takes about 5.30 hours. Cormandel is 3-4 hours out of Auckland.

The NZ Rainbow Gatherings in the past have been small, in the order of 70-80 rainbows. Many of those who have attended are from overseas, especially Australia. The World Gathering is the first World Gathering in NZ : those previous would be considered as a small national gathering. There seems to be a great degree of interest both in NZ and overseas. The figure being put forward is about 400 -1000 attending. There have been seven national gatherings in NZ since the inception of the rainbow family in 1992. Three have been held in the Baton Valley, behind Motueka (Nelson). One has been held in the far North (north of Auckland). Two have been held at the Moehau commune (intentional "back to the land" community) in the Coromandel. The last one was held on public land in the Tongariro National Park near the Kaimanawa Range in 2007 : the other sites mentioned were all on private land.

There has never been any problem with official harassment by the authorities in NZ such as that which has occurred in the USA. There appears to be several reasons for this : the Gatherings are generally on private land : the new Right never made much progress here : there is a general openness to, and some political space for alternatives.. Environmental sustainability is now a mainstream issue whereas in the past this was a hippie cause. The Green block in Parliament enjoys about 10% support.

Rainbow Gatherings in NZ are clothes optional in the rainbow tradition and nudity can be expected really anywhere. There is a simlarity with the counter-culture in NZ during the hippie era in that there are certain aspects which are associated with the Rainbow Family, one being the lunar cycle, another being the practice to get naked and cover one's body with wet clay. The reason for this seems to be that the youth culture in NZ really only took off in 1973-4 after the development of the Rainbow Family in the USA from the American youth culture. Most young people in NZ, including myself here, were influenced one way or another by those years and perhaps explains why there is a residual support for hippie ideas even though the youth culture in NZ lost its momentum in the 1980s. Nudity in itself is not illegal in NZ. Social nudity here has a long history from colonial times and within Maori society. In the hippy era this aspect was very much supported by radicalised youth. It was a feature of the many communes set up in the 1970s-1980s and at the alternative music festivals of the era such as Nambassa.

The main site for information is worldrainbowgathering on Yahoo.


Kia Kaha (Keep strong). Gerald in Wellington