Rangers stationed on Motukorea/Browns Island during the America's Cup got quite the surprise when a boatload of nudists showed up.
Senior ranger for southern regional parks at Auckland Council Miranda Bennett told Newshub the au naturel visitors turned up to the island on the last Saturday of racing.
"We did have a boatload of four nudists turn up on the island after racing in the evening. They had obviously had a pretty good day out on the water and decided to come and explore Motukorea au naturel."
"They were in good spirits and decided to do a circuit of the island nude and with no shoes, so I hope they had plenty of sunscreen," she said.
Bennett said during the America's Cup staff were stationed on the island to give visitors information and deal with any bad behaviour, but they weren't expecting nudists.
"We had staff on the island during race days to be there to give visitors extra information... but also to make sure no one was up to anything they shouldn't be doing, such as lighting fires or taking dogs onto the island and also to do biosecurity checks."
She said for the most part boaties were well behaved but there were a few people bringing dogs onto the island.
"We did have a few incidents with boaties bringing dogs onto the island which is a little bit frustrating particularly as our wildlife on those islands are very vulnerable and fragile and bringing dogs onto those islands is not a good idea."
Motukorea is a small island in the Hauraki Gulf. During COVID-19 alert level 3 and 4 cameras on the island captured Aucklanders breaking lockdown to visit.
At the time, environment and community chair councillor Richard Hills said the lockdown breaking was Incredibly disappointing.
"There is an amazing group of volunteers who care for our Gulf Islands, in addition to our own programmes. They've all spent the last six weeks anxiously waiting to get back to the work to protect the native wildlife on the island. To hear that people have been spotted ignoring the restrictions and using Motukorea as their own private island will be gutting."
