A year in the life of a flightless bird

I am celebrating my first year as a flightless bird.

I have traveled the length of the country several times by car, bus, train and boat. Now that I am used to the time frames that this mode of travel takes, I have found that I can sit back and relax. I have made sock monkeys, read books, met interesting people, seen parts of New Zealand that I would never have known existed. Because I invest so much in travelling to my destination, I tend to spend more time there. This means that when I went to Invercargill for a show I made sure that while I was down that end of the island I visited Bluff and Gore, whereas most of my fellow band members jumped on a plane after the gig and went home. Some of the band members stayed on, and we had wonderful little adventures together.

This year, I have seen more of my Auckland based family, because I often arrive early and stay late, which means ‘Aunty Meme’ has read a lot more books to her nephews thanks to her clipped wings.

I feel proud of the ‘sacrifice’ that I have made, and of the bold step to commit to something that seemed daunting and impossible from the outset.

But the reality was, land based travel has given me a much richer experience of my life this year. I have had time to deeply appreciate my life, and the beautiful country I live in.

Of all the experiences, my favourite was on the double-decker day bus from AKL to WGN yesterday. Here was my view:


And here was a little friend I met on one of the breaks:

So the upshot? I am sold on land based travel, and I am looking forward to another year of clipped wings. I have landed a new job, and there will be lots of travel involved, but I am going to strive my best to do the whole year without flying. 

What I am finding is that I now have to book for the trains. Last time I tried to book a week in advance, and it was completely sold out. Are other people starting to think this way? I hope so!

P.S. I did take one flight during the year - it was a medical emergency. My doctors advised against traveling home for 10 hours. I made sure to offset this flight as well as all the emissions from my car and the buses through the wonderful organisation - Greenfleet