To travel without barriers . . .

There I am, sitting on the edge of the tour bus steps at Waikiki Beach. The lift is broken and I can’t walk down. It was working when I got on the bus, but how am I going to get off? It was going to take some creative thinking. Just like we’ve been learning to adapt to travel in a Covid-19 world, I’ve been learning to adapt my whole life as a disabled person. I was born with muscular dystrophy and I use a wheelchair; it’s in my nature to adapt because the world is not designed for disabled people.

Disabled people want to explore too, but when it comes to travelling, there’s a lot more to organise. When I plan a trip, not only do I have to plan flights, accommodation and activities like everyone else, but I have to check in advance that it’s all accessible. Just the thought of going on a spontaneous holiday freaks me out a bit. But it’s often the unplanned events that are the most memorable.

A few years ago, I went on a family holiday to Hawaii. When we arrived at my accessible hotel room, it turned out to be a room for people who were deaf and/or hard-ofhearing, rather than wheelchair users. Although the flashing doorbell and fire alarm light were cool features, all I wanted was an accessible bathroom.

My favourite part of the holiday was discovering how accessible the Hawaiians could make a beach. There were beach mats so that I could roll on top of the sand without getting stuck. Need help getting out of the ocean, and back on to the sand? There were friendly lifeguards along the main beaches, whom I took full advantage of to carry me back to my sunbathing spot.

On an island tour around Oahu, we stopped at stunning Hanauma Bay, and the peaceful Byodo-In Temple. The last stop was at the Dole Pineapple Plantation. As everyone was exiting the tour bus and looking forward to a pineapple soft serve icecream, the hydraulic lift at the back of the bus jammed shut and the driver couldn’t fix it.

When we arrived back at our hotel, the tour company serviceman still couldn’t fix the lift. The only way I was going to get off the bus was to ask a strong-looking hotel concierge to lift me off the bus and back into my wheelchair.

I checked his name tag to thank him. It read: Lucky. As I’m typing this editorial, I’m listening to a Spotify playlist of beach wave sounds (you decide if that’s sad or hopeful). As I dream of one day going back to Hawaii for a holiday, the reality is it will probably be very different to the last time I was there.

If the pandemic is going to change the way we travel with things like pre-departure testing and vaccine passports, it also gives us a chance to rebuild and adapt the way we travel by making it more accessible and inclusive to give more freedom to disabled people.

In this special edition of Stuff Travel, we celebrate the accessible travel experiences in Aotearoa and beyond.

If you have an accessible travel story you would like to share, email us at travel@stuff.co.nz.