It isn't that unusual for people to go barefoot in New Zealand though I didn't do it often. I did it for a bit in Edinburgh for a while. You do get funny looks but nothing like the racially-motivated bigotry you find in the US.

The person I knew in NZ who went barefoot all the time (this being in central Auckland) is now the high-profile senior figure in a government department. I'd be surprised if she wasn't still barefoot a lot of the time.