WELLINGTON (Feb 17):  A 40-year-old New Zealand man has asked the High Court to rule that it is okay to ride a bicycle naked on a public road. Nick Lowe, a Wellington builder, appealed to the court against a NZ$200fine and conviction for offensive behaviour, saying there was evidence that New Zealanders had become more tolerant towards nudity. 

   Lowe was reported in Wednesday's Dominion Post newspaper as saying there was nothing offensive about his ride on a quiet rural road in Upper Hutt, 32km north of Wellington, on last year's World Nude Bike Day. He was charged after a passing motorist objected and called police.     "It's a lifestyle thing," Lowe told the paper. "To put clothes on is uncomfortable. It's not about exhibitionism, I'm just uncomfortable in clothes.

"I walk around the house naked, I mow the lawns naked, I'll do the garden naked. A lot of smelly, sweaty clothes - why do that when you don't need to?" Lowe cited nudity in street parades, National Nude Day, Naked Wedding Day and a recent naked cycle on the Central Otago Rail Trail as proof that "we're not as puritan as we used to be."    

He described himself as a natural athlete, said he regularly trained nude and had completed a Coast to Coast triathlon naked from the waist down and nobody had complained. The judge reserved his decision. - dpa