Patrick Smellie tries on his Travelmat for size. Photo / Supplied
Yes, of course, it sounds glamorous flying from Wellington to Norway and back for a week on a work trip. But you try doing it. It's a recipe for exhaustion.
It was with all those hours in economy weighing on my mind that an email advertising a Kickstarter fundraising programme
for the Travelmat by Thermalay dropped into my inbox last month.
Accompanied by a lovably amateurish video made by its inventor, Kaitaia-based globe-trotter James Bounsell, the Travelmat came with the sort of claim that is almost impossible to resist: it had placed second in the "Best New Innovation of 2018" at the annual Travel Goods Show in Las Vegas, beaten only by a robotic suitcase.
In exchange for a very reasonable $45, James sent me a prototype of the Travelmat, which is essentially a foam pad that turns an economy class seat into a much more comfortable economy class seat and includes a surprisingly effective alternative to a neck pillow, and sprouts a couple of snails' tentacles from the top of the pad.
Inside these two extensions are memory foam, which not only creates a more effective neck pillow than the usual sort, but allows all sorts of different head, neck, back and under-thigh support options. Given the tendency to get one of more cricks of some sort at some stage on any long-haul flight, this variety of deployments is one of the Travelmat's best features.
