In 2021 I wrote an email to my sister with the subject line “all I can think about are low-carbon adventures”.

“all I can think about are low carbon adventures and what counts as one. the beginning of a manifesto:

–   only using public transport, hitchhiking, or in a pinch, rides with people who were going anyway

–   exploring at different speeds

–   using what you already have and trying not to buy anything new for the trip”

I then went on to pitch her an adventure which involved “a week or two or three to go quite far [on bikes] and swim in interesting locations and do a bit of harmless trespassing.” Sadly, it didn’t happen then – but our trip together in Ladakh ticked all of these boxes so I guess it just took five years to come to pass. 

When I made my first low-carbon adventure zine, in 2024, I had entirely forgotten that email to Shar; the phrase had shifted into the background. It felt like something I had always known. And now, having spent more than two years thrusting low-carbon adventure zines into people’s hands, it’s something a lot of other people know too! I have seen the low-carbon adventure zine printed out in a Greenpeace office, seen it shared in the Climate Club newsletter and seen a copy of the first low-carbon adventure zine with all the worksheets filled out. I have also heard secondhand rumours of loved ones describing it as “those pieces of paper covered in scribbles that Shanti keeps giving me”. Unfortunately this is too amusing for me to desist.

So it is with all of that JOY that I present the new low-carbon adventure zine, We’re going on a low-carbon adventure, aka LCA3. It’s a pretty similar format to LCA2, with eight adventures from eight different people (one of whom is me).

Inside, there are 2 running adventures, 1 kayaking adventure, 2 biking adventures, 2 ferry adventures, 4 bus adventures and 4 train adventures. There are 4 Aotearoa adventures (3 in the North Island, 1 in the South Island), 2 Asian adventures, 1 European adventure and 1 North American adventure. The longest adventure is 9000 km and the shortest is 5 km. There are 2 maps, 2 pictures of window views and 1 picture of a monkey.

It was so fun and enlivening to put this together, and I am grateful to all the contributors for writing about where they went. It made me wish I had more room for longer pieces, which might be something to think about for future editions. My workflow for the illustrations was a lot more professional and the zine looks nicer as a result (imo). It’s nice to see myself improving!

Here are some more details about the contributors and their adventures:

Mercy Jones is an engineering student who loves planning gatherings and practising handstands. Her happy places are tinkering in a bike workshop, running down a mountain ridge, or jumping into a body of water. Her adventure is about biking and running all night and all day in inland Canterbury.

Siobhan McDonough is a writer who works in policy in California. Her interests include running, cooking, biking, reading and public transit. She writes a (great!) blog called Statistics and Sentiments. Her adventure is about two train journeys on the California Zephyr.

Rohan Mathias is an engineer with a lot of ideas. He’s great at backflips and booking trains in countries where he doesn’t speak the language. He’s currently travelling through central Asia. His adventure is about using every kind of public transport possible while travelling through south east Asia with Lin.

Lin Li Yeoh loves exploring new places and taking both scenic routes and dodgy shortcuts. She is currently travelling through central Asia. Her adventure is about using every kind of public transport possible to travel through south-east Asia with Rohan.

Amanda Stone enjoys making zines, walking in forests and attending themed parties. She is currently travelling in southern Europe. Her adventure is about buses and trains in Kyoto.

Elisabeth Pesavento is a musician and recovering perfectionist. She chases ducks, draws pictures and convinces people to go paddling in Hamburg. Her adventure is about paddling on the Alster.

Shanti Mathias was raised going on low carbon adventures. She likes riding her bike around Ōtautahi, making stuff with Shreyas, playing viola and going up hills. My adventure is about taking the train to go for a long run in the Hutt Valley.

Justin Hu is a journalist based in Auckland’s Kingsland. He’s a transport and urban planning geek who loves exploring Tāmaki Makaurau – and is very, very excited for the City Rail Link to open! His adventure is about the 70 bus in Auckland.

Jenny Sahng works on climate change, energy, and data at the charity Rewiring Aotearoa. She recently went on another low-carbon adventure from Ireland to Sweden and she wrote about it in her super secret blog that she’s only shared with family, close friends, and now, readers of this zine, here you go. Her adventure is about cycling around Waiheke in Auckland.

To accompany this edition, I’ve updated the Adventure Resources page with details including more tips about train travel from Siobhan, an Instagram account dedicated to Justin’s favourite bike route, and an article I wrote for Wilderness magazine about tramping from trains. I’ve also put together a playlist of some of my favourite low-carbon songs on Spotify and YouTube, with some additions from zine contributors too. 

Why to have a low-carbon adventure

In LCA1, I wrote “This is a zine about how to have a low carbon adventure. It is not a zine about why to have a low-carbon adventure, because the why is pretty obvious”. But I also included some suggestions for how to make your adventure political. While the focus of this zine series is definitely positive, I don’t want to imply that we can have a lovely time going on adventures without thinking about the wider realities that make public transport so much slower or less frequent, the near-impossibility of many tramping/hiking route access points without a car and the sheer scale of the oil economy. 

I have been trying to think about the emotional side of the climate crisis, to really dwell in my feelings about it. I’m hopeful about the future – and that hope comes from the outside world, from the wonder of collective action, the strength I find in solidarity and the future. But I’m also angry, and confused and sad. In hot months, I think “this is going to be one of the coolest summers of the rest of my life.” I read through political party policy and am devastated that there is so little foreign aid funding for the impacts of climate change. And while there are limits to the idea of the individual “carbon footprint”, the number of flights I’ve taken in the last year (about 18 – I couldn’t in good conscience record our trip through Turkiye or India as a low-carbon adventure no matter how many buses and trains and biking happened) reminds me that I am not separate from these systems, I am within them. The last thing I would want to do is suggest that low carbon adventures, infinite as their possibilities are, can solve these gnarly problems.

Despite this, there are always reasons for joy, and making zines about low-carbon adventures gives me that joy! Especially when it comes with the satisfaction of improving my illustration and design skills, getting to work with some excellent writers/friends and feeling very inspired to do things like spend all night running around the mountains, ride the entirety of a bus route or hop on long distance trains. So, once again, We’re going on a low-carbon adventure can be read on Mostly Good Ideas zine page here, and if you want a physical copy, show up to the Ōtautahi Zinefest on 5th September or get in touch.