Zero waste on the go

This is my backpack:

It goes pretty much everywhere with me and contains all my essentials for dodging waste like a ninja.

Reducing kitchen waste on a budget

Your kitchen is where a huge amount of your consumption happens. Most of the time when I go to the shops it’s for food, which is probably why food packaging is one of the biggest components of most of the bins I’ve seen.

If you bring in predominantly unpackaged food and to use up all of the food you bring in you’ll be most of the way there. Keep your kitchen minimalist to avoid all the plastic tools that get used once a year or break often.

Lunch for a couple of days while I was in Norway – all from a normal supermarket.

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Less Waste in 3 Steps

We all know the basics of the zero waste lifestyle – slowly change your personal habits until you create no waste from your day to day life. For some of us who started off creating a huge amount of waste that can be very daunting.

Where do you even start??
Here are the three steps I took to reduce my waste:

1. Do a ‘waste audit’ to figure out what the most common things in your bin are, and write them down.

2. Pick one thing each week that you will stop buying or find an alternative for when it runs out.
– Only replace things as they run out or get worn out, use what you have first. 
– Repeat these two steps and reassess as you go – it won’t happen overnight, and that’s ok! Everyone’s journey will take a different amount of time. 

New Zealand’s South Island Part 5 – Mt Cook to Able Tasman National Park

Aoraki Mount Cook and its surrounding park is a striking area of Aotearoa. It’s the tallest peak so you won’t be climbing it unless your next stop is Everest, but the views from the bottom are beautiful.

Zero Waste and Eco-Friendly Gift Ideas

It’s getting to that time of year where people start thinking about expressing their love through gifts. My family hasn’t really done this since we all started earning money and no longer needed clothes or books bought for us, but occasionally you’ll want to show affection through a thoughtful gift and that’s ok. 

When it comes to actually choosing a gift there are an impressive number of people and organisations who will try and convince you that fun, useless, probably plastic, unethically made trinkets are a good idea for those “little somethings” and “stocking fillers”. DON’T LISTEN TO THEM, YOU ARE BETTER THAN THAT. 😉

New Zealand’s South Island Part 4 – To the south, to the south!

After the sounds, we had to decide how far south we felt like going. Often people will start going back north from there, towards Dunedin and the central south island; but as we had an extra day up our sleeves we decided to check out Bluff and the Catlin’s (the southernmost point of mainland New Zealand) before heading back up.

On your way out of the sounds, do make sure to stop at the mirror lakes, they are eerily flat and reflective.

We took the drive to Bluff, the southernmost town in New Zealand, slowly and stopped at a few little parks for walks and exploring.

You can drive all the way out to the coast at Stirling Point, where this cute sign is surrounded by a constant cluster of people politely waiting their turn to take a photo. There are also tracks you can walk down along the coast through native bush.

There are some great spots, we especially enjoyed the Bluff Hill lookout. It has a gorgeous view of Stewart Island and the surrounding area.

The top of the hill has a platform area with interesting tidbits of information, and names of surrounding landmarks. This one was my favourite translation –

We made our way around the coast towards Waipapa lighthouse on the way to the Catlins. It’s a ridiculously quaint sight.

Our final stop before the Catlins was Slope point – the actual furthest south you can get on mainland New Zealand. You get to it by walking through farmland, which was pretty hilarious, though the cows didn’t see the funny side.

Onwards, to Curio bay! If you’re into Jurassic aged trees then this is definitely a cool sight – it’s a fossilised forest that’s now mostly rock pools.

You can still see the knots in the trees, even though they are thousands of years old.

The Catlin’s Forest Park is beautiful. There are oodles of waterfalls and walks that are easily accessible from the road. the most popular of these is the McLean Falls.

Tunnel Hill, another walk in the Catlin’s –

Nugget Point lighthouse –

The ‘Nuggets’ – possibly one of the more picturesque parts of the coastline, or possibly I just love the word nugget.

Roaring bay penguin and seal observatory, looking out over one of the only nesting points of the endangered Yellow Eyed Penguin. We actually saw one too! It was tiny and very far away… It might even be in this picture.

Of course, we had to keep feeding ourselves and managed to find a load of awesome places to stock up with zero waste, package-free food – like New World’s deli counter.

No visit to the South Island of New Zealand is complete without a trip to the Moeraki Boulders on the beach. Top tip – if you go through the cafe area you’ll need to pay to use the stairs, but if you go just down the road there is a Department of Conservation access point that’s free and has info about the area.

Oamaru was apparently once one of the largest towns in Aotearoa and was a hub of business and shipping. You can see that in the boom of Victorian architecture, all built very quickly.

A delish, local package-free treat!

The “steampunk capital” of New Zealand, the Victorian shops are full of a wide range of art and quirky antiques.

For the truly inspired, there’s also a Steampunk experience.

We weren’t that inspired and instead opted for a cheese tasting. Whitestone Cheese Co also do tours of the factory, but we were there on the wrong day.

The area around Oamaru has been populated for an impressively long time, and nearby, at Takiroa, near Duntroon you’ll find some brilliant examples of ancient Maori rock art.

We started the drive inland from there, along the Waitaki river. The Waitaki is one of the most significant waterways in our hydroelectricity generation here, and the dams and generation houses make a nice place to stop along the way towards Mount Cook.

See you there!

xo cait

I’ve been thinking…

Your life is filled with the things you prioritise, so what I am working on filling my life with is things that make me happy.

Natural, zero waste cleaning

Recently, I tried a laundry experiment involving English Ivy. I read on the internet that it could be used to clean clothes, so I gave it a go. As far as I can tell there didn’t seem to be much difference between my clothes just rinsed and my clothes washed in the washing machine with a bag of torn up ivy. My clothes don’t really get dirty (I work an office job and have no dogs or kids around me), but the general armpit whiff is always a thing on my clothes (regardless of what deodorant I use, though the Dirty Hippie deodorant seems the best so far) even when I used to use store bought synthetic thingies.

So, I’ll try another couple of methods, but at the moment that one’s a bust. It did get me thinking though, about what “clean” is. It’s definitely not about killing 99.9% of germs, because heaps of those are actually useful, but some level of hygiene is still important.

90% of my household cleaning uses just vinegar, which I buy in 5l lots, and baking soda, which I buy package-free or in 5kg bags. Occasionally I will get fancy with some lemons or essential oils, but mostly I keep things really simple (and cheap!).

Without further ado – here’s my cleaning routine:

Zero waste pastry and a Harry Potter themed party

It was my birthday last weekend, so I decided to make all my snacks for my party – waste free! Seeing as I was turning 26, I threw the birthday party 13-year-old me would have loved – but twice as awesome. A Harry Potter themed movie pyjama party in a tent fort and eating fancy hamburgers 4 times in 1 day.

Naturally, there had to be party snacks for in between the burger lunch and the burger dinner. I made pumpkin pie spiced popcorn, lemon sorting muffins, cockroach clusters, and both sweet and savoury pumpkin pasties. There were also bulk pretzels and lollies, bought package free. I was darn proud of myself.

Getting to the bottom of Toilet Paper – Which one’s really better for the planet?

Have you ever tried something new, or bought a new brand because you thought it was more eco-friendly than what you used to do… only to be told by everyone as soon as you mention it that it’s actually worse?

It can feel impossible to figure out what is actually good for the planet, especially with such a staggering amount of greenwashing and so many aspects of the ecosystem to consider.

As a general rule, if I can avoid it – I don’t buy it at all.

If I can’t avoid buying something I try to buy things second hand so that I’m not contributing to the initial creation of the product, or I look for the most environmentally friendly version of the thing.

Obviously, toilet paper is not one of the things you can get second hand… so what is the most sustainable option? Figuring out which brand is the best for our planet is a pain in the rear*. Let the bathroom puns commence.