“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” - Henry Miller

I got a big wake up call when I started looking more closely at my personal impacts on the climate recently. About 80 percent of my emissions last year (from home and travel) were from flying. This truly is an inconvenient truth. Here’s a look at my options for long-distance travel (across NZ and the world) without cooking the climate:

Option A: Don’t travel
Response: Scratch that. As Mark Twain once said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” Travel is enriching and it’s a whole lot of fun. Plus I have family and friends spread across New Zealand and the globe.

Option B: Don’t fly
Response: Glum. How does this fit with the mantra of ‘improving your quality of life through reducing your environmental impact’? I applaud some leaders who are willing to go this far, but it’s a leap too large for me right now. I am prepared to be a “conscious flyer” though. That means I’ll think before I fly, explore my options, and close my eyes to remember this animation of global air travel (24 hours in just 72 seconds):

Option C: Enjoy the journey more
Response: This sounds more compelling.

Air travel is quick, but travelling sardine-style is far from ideal. Plus a part of me always takes time to properly arrive after my body has hurtled through space. Airplanes are awesome, but they don’t represent the apex of artful travel to me. Many people who have travelled in countries with modern rail systems will know what I mean. So what I’d really like to see in New Zealand is a better train set, with:
- High speed electric-powered trains connecting major centres. For example, Auckland to Wellington is about the same distance as London to Edinburgh. UK trains travel that distance in just over 4 hours. New Zealand’s terrain is more bumpy, but British Rail is hardly the most advanced rail system in the world.
- Free broadband internet - just like on on some Wellington buses
- Plenty of goodness, such as business compartments, good cafes, party wagons, sleeper carriages on slower overnight trains… whatever it takes to make the journey a joy (and ideally cheaper than flying).

I live on an island, so I’m also interested in alternatives to travelling by plane overseas. Some things I’d love to see are:
- New Zeppelins from New Zealand! I’m not joking. Zeppelins (also known as blimps or airships) offer lower speeds, lower costs, more space to stretch out, greater safety and an air of grace. Well, maybe… but this is an idea that deserves exploring. See World Changing and Zeppelin Island for inspirations.
- A global cargo cruising network. New Zealand already exports most products by boat, so why not hitch a ride? According to this NZ travel writer, it’s a great way to travel with enough time and money (it currently costs more than flying). Here’s a business opportunity for someone: set up a “one point shop” on-line for all potential cargo cruising customers and shipping companies. It would make it easier to find and book trips. Shipping companies could also retrofit their boats to make them more attractive for passengers, without going overboard and becoming expensive cruise ships.
- Boat retreats. It takes longer to travel by boat, but why not make the most of the time? Educational workshops, conferences, yoga workshops, intensive design-sessions for businesses… whatever, really. The limits are in the imagination.

"Enjoying the journey" also involves thinking about the quantity of trips as much as the quality. I reckon it's really important, and actually a challenge, to constantly lead an enriching life close to home. If I’m good to myself (e.g. living wholeheartedly so I don't burn out) I won’t feel the urge to escape to distant places for rest and relaxation. There's plenty to explore in life wherever I am. A good internet connection helps too.

Time travel
Planes are a speedy way to fly, but real speeds can sometimes be an illusion due to perceptions of time. Over some distances, planes aren’t actually faster than trains (just as cars are often slower than bikes in cities). That’s because trains travel directly into city centres, avoiding traffic delays, and there are no time-consuming check-in or luggage systems to deal with.

Going deeper: one of the facts that struck me when I first read the Ecology of Commerce was that if you divide the average speed travelled by a car in the USA by the number of hours a person must work to buy, maintain and drive it, car buyers are only travelling at about... walking pace. Similarly, slower forms of motion could actually be relatively quicker than travel by plane, except that flights are currently cheaper (but maybe not for long).

There's also a strange paradox in modern life: many people are living longer and longer, while finding less time to travel between destinations. Whatever happened to the journey being as important as the destination? This has implications for working life too. What difference could a few more days or weeks of annual holidays make to travelling more slowly? Slow travel can be a great way to see more of the world, and as a recent article in the New York times suggests, “slow looking, like slow cooking, may yet become a new radical chic.”

Getting back to now
While I imagine a better future, I’ve also decided to take the train from Wellington to Auckland for Christmas this year. I don’t like that it currently costs me more than flying, but it’s an enjoyable journey. I’ll favour trains over planes for my domestic travel and take buses for shorter trips (up to 5 hours). I’m a big fan of the inter-island ferry too. I’ll make time to travel slowly. When I travel internationally I’ll travel more by boat and over land. I'm even excited by the idea of cargo cruising. I’ll make fewer trips but take longer each time. This sounds like a good way to enjoy the journey more: avoid rushing around. The only rush is the joy along the way.

Note: This is a cross-posting from my blog on Re-Be.