Trevally

While I was pregnant I let go of some of the dietary changes I had made for environmental reasons. I ate fewer vegetarian meals and more dairy and fish. One thing I held onto was that I still tried to buy the best fish I could according to the Forest & Bird Best Fish Guide. 

It's pretty hard to find fish species from the green section of the guide, especially at supermarkets. One of the best fish I bought was trevally, from the fish shop at the top of Cuba St. 

It's pretty under-rated, I reckon. I served it up to dinner guests one night and it was great. My guests liked it so much they even asked what kind of fish it was.

Suburban Compost Mum

It's been a long time since my last post and in that time my life has radically changed.

Since January I've moved in with my partner - which has involved moving from an inner city apartment to a house in the suburbs of Lower Hutt - and we've had a baby.

This has been a huge challenge to many of my "green" practices. I'm no longer a free and easy singleton who has plenty of disposable income, makes all the decisions in their domestic life and lives within walking distance of everything. Now our income has halved, I have to negotiate a compromise with my partner on all the household systems (recycling, grocery shopping, cleaning) and it's a mission to go anywhere without driving. Plus I've got a baby to think about.

Meanwhile climate change hasn't gone away, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch hasn't got any smaller and species are still becoming extinct. How am I going to figure out how to keep sustainability a part of my life as a suburban mum?

Plastic-free international travel

While I was on my big trip I still tried to find ways to avoid using plastic as much as possible. Beth Terry blogged on this a while ago - all good ideas, but more appropriate for travelling within the United States where she lives, rather than spending a couple of months travelling around on the other side of the world.

I wasn't heroic enough to try to work out how to take all my own food on a 12-hour flight leaving from a foreign city! But I tried to do what I could.

The things I found to be simplest and most effective:

• Taking your own snacks/lunch on buses and trains.

Usually the only food available to buy on trains or at stations is heavily packaged (and expensive). I regularly bought a supply of stuff like small blocks of cheese, packets of dried fruit, chocolate and crackers, which will all keep for a few days, then added bread and fresh fruit on days I knew I would need a lunch. I took a small lidded container to keep opened packets in. It was handy to have a Swiss army knife to cut up cheese, bread etc.

• Eating before you head to the airport or taking your own food

Again, most food at airports seems to involve a lot of plastic and you inevitably get hungry during all the waiting.

• Taking your own water bottle and refilling it from the tap at your accommodation each day.

I also refilled it in airports after going through security, like Beth. This was good everywhere that the tap water is drinkable. In Bangkok it was different! I also found out why they drink bottled water in Paris - the tap water really isn't very nice. Luckily they do a good line in drinks in real glasses at all those cafes.

• Taking a reuseable shopping bag.

I wished I'd thought of this before I left New Zealand, because a reuseable bag is just as useful for supermarkets, street markets and various other purchases when you're travelling as it is at home. However, it took me several days to find one to buy in Spain. Eventually I got a cotton one that folds up small for packing.


Overall it wasn't too hard to avoid plastic in France and Spain. For example, I also took my own collapsible cup and knife, fork and spoon set, but only used them a few times because most of the time I ate in at restaurants that used real cutlery and china.

Unexpected plastic did pop up in a few places though - like the ice cream in a cone that came with a little plastic spoon in Madrid, or the little plastic cap protecting the ice cream on the Spanish version of a Trumpet. That's just a part of travelling.