Last year, I travelled on The Ghan train between Darwin and Adelaide, right through the guts of Australia. Apart from being a unique way to see a large chunk of that huge, barren land, it was an unusual journey in another way, in that I didn't have connectivity for three days.
These days, the only other time I really switch off is on a flight, and now even that small respite is under threat from the increasing prevalence of wifi being offered on planes.
You'd think Air New Zealand, which likes to be seen to be at the forefront of airline innovation, would be leading the charge when it comes to inflight wifi, but, as a reader pointed out on our letters page last week, they haven't yet followed the lead of, say, Emirates, which actually offers the service free on most flights.
I'm in two minds about this. Though wifi would at times be handy, I like going off the grid for a few hours and spending a flight watching TV, reading or sleeping.
And if people have data access on planes, does that mean that things like Skype calls are likely to become a real annoyance?
