Summer Etiquette: How close is too close?

It is polite to keep a 10m distance from strangers on the beach. Photo / Brett Phibbs

How close can you lay your towel down on a beach next to a stranger before it's space invasion?

Anybody who has ever caught a bus knows it fills up to a silent dance.

Empty rows are filled one by one until the wary person walking up the aisle is forced to sit down next to someone else - and then only with a desperate, neck-craning final check of the seats.

The same basic principle applies to the beach - on a crowded day, put down your towel in the spot that will put maximum distance between you and others.

Proxemics - the study of measurable distances between people as they interact - shows that different cultures maintain different standards of personal space.

In Latin cultures, for instance, people tend to be more comfortable standing close to each other.

New Zealanders are a more reserved bunch, so on all but a deserted beach aim for at least 10m between you and others.

Variables play an important role - are you a young man and the stranger is in a bikini?

Are you carrying pamphlets warning of eternal damnation? Are you a teenager playing Soulja Boy through tinny speakers? Do you have baggy jeans and a pitbull on a straining leash? Add a few metres.