Wondering when summer was going to start? Spare a thought for nearly 200 nudists who have gathered outside Christchurch this week.

After a month of bleak southerlies, a gentle north-easterly yesterday allowed business as usual to go on at Pineglade Naturist Club in Rolleston, where nudists from as far afield as England and Australia attended the annual rally.

This soon proves to be place where preconceptions rather than clothes should be left at the gate. The New Year's Eve party tonight, for example, is a fancy dress.

Fancy dress? How do naturists do fancy dress?

"Some people will just wear body paint but most naturists love to dress up," explains one of the organisers, Noel Thomas.

"The theme is 'crusade' so we'll be wearing red and black, but we've told Wellington people they can just wear eye liner. We're not just here to take our clothes off – if it's cold, people put clothes on."

This is a place of paradoxes, from the presence of a clothes line to the absence of shower curtains. The organising committee can be recognised by their outfits – bright-red peak caps – and money, if needed, is carried in a pouch around the neck.

At the end of the rally, keen sun lovers with faith in the weather will continue south, visiting naturist clubs in Geraldine, Tekapo, and finally Middlemarch in the Maniototo.