September 5, 2025 • 8 mins
Travelling can be a busy and challenging time, and making more sustainable choices can sometimes fall by the wayside.
But Kate Hall has a few tips and tricks on how to make travel a little bit more sustainable, both before you go, and while you’re away.
Before you go:
- Switch off appliances at the wall, empty fridge/freezer if away for longer, manage heating/cooling.
- Plan travel so you don’t overpack or buy unnecessary items.
While travelling:
- Choose lower-emission transport where possible (direct flights, trains, buses).
- Reusable items (water bottle, coffee cup, cutlery) to avoid single-use.
- Support local food and businesses, minimise waste.
Mindset shift:
- Travel lighter, consume less, and think about footprint beyond just flights.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks, that'd be.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Time to catch up with our sustainability commentator Kate Hall
is with us this morning, gilder Icade, Well, Jack, this morning,
we're looking at travel and how you can try and
be a bit more sustainable, not only in your travel
but with the things you're doing at home while you travel,
which I know sounds a bit confusing, but actually there
is some really simple stuff you can do to make
sure you're obviously consuming less energy at home when you're
(00:35):
not at home. So let's start off there. I didn't
know this did anything, but you reckon actually switching off
appliances at the wall is worth it.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Yes, yep, there have been studies done. Obviously, it depends
on the footprint of your home and all of that
as to how much you are actually saving, but switching
appliants off, I think it's also a good piece of
mind as well. You know that things aren't running and
just and can't be running, you know, less likely for
things to happen.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
So I've become quite obsessed with my power bill lately,
basically because this is utterly seen over the winter, because
we have some we hit We still have pipe gas
at our place for heating, so don't get me started
on that anyway. But we were away from home for
a couple of weeks and I found it like really
interesting to see how much energy we were still consuming
when no one was in the house. I was like,
(01:24):
it was as possible.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, it's still a lot. I mean it is hard
for your fridge and freezer, but if you are away
for you know, a really like a month or something,
it can actually be in your best interest to get
rid of all the food, pass it around to friends
and family, and actually turn it off. Yeah, because yeah,
especially you said over winter and get into the summer months.
(01:47):
And also then it's it's not on your mind as well.
If something had to happen, you know, the power goes out,
you're not wasting all that food because you're not there
to kind of salvage it.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, that's a very good point. Yeah, because that's a
terrible I'm sure you know that, that terrible feeling getting
back from being away from home and realizing that actually
the freezer has been plugged for four days and you
had meat and ice cream and everything's kind of a
warm glob at the bottom. No one needs that. What
what about packing? How do you think about packing sustainably?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Well, I've always been quite a light to packer, and
I think that's great too, because you're not carrying around,
you know, a whole lot of unnecessary stuff. And then
especially if you're fine an aeroplane or in a CAF,
the heavier the vehicles, the more coveron emissions. And I
just find it practical too.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
That's interesting. I am a principle one hundred percent support.
That's my favorite writer, AA girl who used to just
travel around you know, the world. He was an amazing
travel writer. He swore that he would never travel anywhere
with checked and luggage. So he was always like, I've
just got just one bag and you know, like a
(02:56):
few essentials in there, and if there's something I really
need when I'm away, then I'll be able to pack that.
I mean, I'm sure he made, you know, some exceptions
for the Arctic Circle and things like that, but yeah, yeah,
and he just reckoned that was the way to travel.
There is something, Yeah, there is something quite nice about,
especially if you're going to multiple places as part of
(03:17):
a trip, about not having to fat around with giant suitcases.
And stuff as well.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
It just makes the whole trip so so much easier,
you know, transporting yourself to and from buffes and planes
and trains and you know, in vehicles, And you're right,
you can actually if you need something enough, you can
buy it when you're there. And I guess that can sound,
you know, slightly controversial, because for me, if I were
(03:42):
to forget my toothpaste or toothbrush, you know, I've got
my resual toothbrush and my toothpaste, but I haven't. When
you're focusing just on the essentials, you're more likely to
bring those and if you buy it once, you know,
it's not the end of the world.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. So what about the travel itself.
Are you going to tell us that we have to
take e bikes everywhere? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah, yeah, never go anywhere and just take either.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
It's going to be a journey to Australia.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Actually, my dad's a windsurfer and I always thought one
day I want a windsurf to estlain it. Anyway, I'm
not gonna I'm not going to suggest you do that,
because there are there are ways to aft your flights.
That's really great. If you are flying I'm actually traveling
to church for the first time with my baby, and
(04:29):
I'm looking at, you know, okay, what things to take,
and I've offed at my flights when you are there
at like in the city, when you're traveling around taking trains,
if there irony, especially if you're not in New Zealand,
then it's more likely you can find trains. Looking at
direct flights instead of lots of little ones is also yeah, yeah,
(04:51):
slightly better, and buses too, So before you go, I
find it really helpful to investigate those things first because
then you're not in a situation where you know you're hungry,
you need to get somewhere, you're just going to jump
in a cab that you've actually researched and and looked
at things. And honestly, when you're in a bassa or
a train, you often see things, oh.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Good, nobly if you weren't going to say that, I
was going to say it. So, Like, the thing about
taking public transport when you're traveling overseas is that it's
a big part of the adventure. I just never I
never understand why people don't want to ride in a
train or a subway or bus or whatever. Because the
people watching in these things is amazing. You always get
(05:34):
to experience something new and exciting and fresh that you
wouldn't have experienced otherwise. Yeah, I just I think it's
an absolutely vital part, especially if you're traveling somewhere interesting,
of getting to know the place.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Oh totally. Actually you're sitting with locals, you know, you're
not just observing things. Yeah, from kind of the outset.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
It's all the tic, isn't it. It's authentic? Okay? Yeah, yeah, no,
I absolutely love that. I reckon it's one of the
great joys. Actually, I always set myself if I'm in
a new city, especially, I always set myself a challenge
when I arrived to try and understand the putwork.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
You know, that's cool. I love that especially I think
as a New Zealander when I'm somewhere else and there's
great train systems, it's so novel as well, like it's.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah yeah it does, yeah, yeah, yeah it is. It
does feel well. Although this time next year, hopefully once
the central rail links, I thin will feel slightly less novel.
What about drink bottles? The reason I mentioned them is
that one thing I've noticed recently, and lots of international
airports is increasingly airports have a refill your own drink
(06:39):
bottle kind of station, even in places I wasn't, you know,
like I was in Central America recently and I was
surprised to see that there were places you can you know,
like an El Salvadore. There are places you can fill
up the drink.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Okay, yeah, that's everywhere, yep. So packing kind of like
the little travel pits of I have cutlery, like a
low clepticle bowl, water bottle. I take a water bottle
that has selters and sterilizers. At other places too, that's
water to go have. They're right, which have it all
throughout India with those, so kind of like a little
(07:14):
kitch that when you're going away, you switch off your cliances,
you have your transport ready for when you get there.
You've got your little kind of reasonal items kit, which,
to be honest, I take with me everywhere I go,
you know, even if I'm just going out for the day,
So just make sure I take that or bulk up
with a few more items. And when I am actually
in the place too. You're talking about getting you know,
(07:36):
amongst the locals of transport, focusing on supporting local with
the places you're eating and staying. I think it's probably
like one of the biggest things because if you're going somewhere,
you're voting with your money like every day, and you
can either choose to support all the big chains who
(07:57):
like don't really care about you and aren't really part
of the place, or you can choose to give back
by supporting local and like you know, actually, yeah, voting
with your money that way.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, that's such a good message. Hey, thank you. Kate
really appreciate it. As always, you can find Kate Hall
on social media. She's on all of the good channels,
I suppose, just such ethically Kate and her name will
pomp right up. Oh here we go, Jack. We've just
installed smart switches around the house and cut our daily
electricity usage by twelve kilo hours per day. We turned
(08:30):
off the microwave print to USB, Chart's TV laptop power supplies.
ETCA is Derek, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Derek.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Ninety two ninety two nine two nine two is the
text number if you want to send us a message
this morning.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks b from nine am Saturday or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio,
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks, that'd be.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Time to catch up with our sustainability commentator Kate Hall
is with us this morning, gilder Icade, Well, Jack, this morning,
we're looking at travel and how you can try and
be a bit more sustainable, not only in your travel
but with the things you're doing at home while you travel,
which I know sounds a bit confusing, but actually there
is some really simple stuff you can do to make
sure you're obviously consuming less energy at home when you're
(00:35):
not at home. So let's start off there. I didn't
know this did anything, but you reckon actually switching off
appliances at the wall is worth it.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Yes, yep, there have been studies done. Obviously, it depends
on the footprint of your home and all of that
as to how much you are actually saving, but switching
appliants off, I think it's also a good piece of
mind as well. You know that things aren't running and
just and can't be running, you know, less likely for
things to happen.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
So I've become quite obsessed with my power bill lately,
basically because this is utterly seen over the winter, because
we have some we hit We still have pipe gas
at our place for heating, so don't get me started
on that anyway. But we were away from home for
a couple of weeks and I found it like really
interesting to see how much energy we were still consuming
when no one was in the house. I was like,
(01:24):
it was as possible.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, it's still a lot. I mean it is hard
for your fridge and freezer, but if you are away
for you know, a really like a month or something,
it can actually be in your best interest to get
rid of all the food, pass it around to friends
and family, and actually turn it off. Yeah, because yeah,
especially you said over winter and get into the summer months.
(01:47):
And also then it's it's not on your mind as well.
If something had to happen, you know, the power goes out,
you're not wasting all that food because you're not there
to kind of salvage it.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, that's a very good point. Yeah, because that's a
terrible I'm sure you know that, that terrible feeling getting
back from being away from home and realizing that actually
the freezer has been plugged for four days and you
had meat and ice cream and everything's kind of a
warm glob at the bottom. No one needs that. What
what about packing? How do you think about packing sustainably?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Well, I've always been quite a light to packer, and
I think that's great too, because you're not carrying around,
you know, a whole lot of unnecessary stuff. And then
especially if you're fine an aeroplane or in a CAF,
the heavier the vehicles, the more coveron emissions. And I
just find it practical too.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
That's interesting. I am a principle one hundred percent support.
That's my favorite writer, AA girl who used to just
travel around you know, the world. He was an amazing
travel writer. He swore that he would never travel anywhere
with checked and luggage. So he was always like, I've
just got just one bag and you know, like a
(02:56):
few essentials in there, and if there's something I really
need when I'm away, then I'll be able to pack that.
I mean, I'm sure he made, you know, some exceptions
for the Arctic Circle and things like that, but yeah, yeah,
and he just reckoned that was the way to travel.
There is something, Yeah, there is something quite nice about,
especially if you're going to multiple places as part of
(03:17):
a trip, about not having to fat around with giant suitcases.
And stuff as well.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
It just makes the whole trip so so much easier,
you know, transporting yourself to and from buffes and planes
and trains and you know, in vehicles, And you're right,
you can actually if you need something enough, you can
buy it when you're there. And I guess that can sound,
you know, slightly controversial, because for me, if I were
(03:42):
to forget my toothpaste or toothbrush, you know, I've got
my resual toothbrush and my toothpaste, but I haven't. When
you're focusing just on the essentials, you're more likely to
bring those and if you buy it once, you know,
it's not the end of the world.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. So what about the travel itself.
Are you going to tell us that we have to
take e bikes everywhere? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah, yeah, never go anywhere and just take either.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
It's going to be a journey to Australia.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Actually, my dad's a windsurfer and I always thought one
day I want a windsurf to estlain it. Anyway, I'm
not gonna I'm not going to suggest you do that,
because there are there are ways to aft your flights.
That's really great. If you are flying I'm actually traveling
to church for the first time with my baby, and
(04:29):
I'm looking at, you know, okay, what things to take,
and I've offed at my flights when you are there
at like in the city, when you're traveling around taking trains,
if there irony, especially if you're not in New Zealand,
then it's more likely you can find trains. Looking at
direct flights instead of lots of little ones is also yeah, yeah,
(04:51):
slightly better, and buses too, So before you go, I
find it really helpful to investigate those things first because
then you're not in a situation where you know you're hungry,
you need to get somewhere, you're just going to jump
in a cab that you've actually researched and and looked
at things. And honestly, when you're in a bassa or
a train, you often see things, oh.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Good, nobly if you weren't going to say that, I
was going to say it. So, Like, the thing about
taking public transport when you're traveling overseas is that it's
a big part of the adventure. I just never I
never understand why people don't want to ride in a
train or a subway or bus or whatever. Because the
people watching in these things is amazing. You always get
(05:34):
to experience something new and exciting and fresh that you
wouldn't have experienced otherwise. Yeah, I just I think it's
an absolutely vital part, especially if you're traveling somewhere interesting,
of getting to know the place.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Oh totally. Actually you're sitting with locals, you know, you're
not just observing things. Yeah, from kind of the outset.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
It's all the tic, isn't it. It's authentic? Okay? Yeah, yeah, no,
I absolutely love that. I reckon it's one of the
great joys. Actually, I always set myself if I'm in
a new city, especially, I always set myself a challenge
when I arrived to try and understand the putwork.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
You know, that's cool. I love that especially I think
as a New Zealander when I'm somewhere else and there's
great train systems, it's so novel as well, like it's.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah yeah it does, yeah, yeah, yeah it is. It
does feel well. Although this time next year, hopefully once
the central rail links, I thin will feel slightly less novel.
What about drink bottles? The reason I mentioned them is
that one thing I've noticed recently, and lots of international
airports is increasingly airports have a refill your own drink
(06:39):
bottle kind of station, even in places I wasn't, you know,
like I was in Central America recently and I was
surprised to see that there were places you can you know,
like an El Salvadore. There are places you can fill
up the drink.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Okay, yeah, that's everywhere, yep. So packing kind of like
the little travel pits of I have cutlery, like a
low clepticle bowl, water bottle. I take a water bottle
that has selters and sterilizers. At other places too, that's
water to go have. They're right, which have it all
throughout India with those, so kind of like a little
(07:14):
kitch that when you're going away, you switch off your cliances,
you have your transport ready for when you get there.
You've got your little kind of reasonal items kit, which,
to be honest, I take with me everywhere I go,
you know, even if I'm just going out for the day,
So just make sure I take that or bulk up
with a few more items. And when I am actually
in the place too. You're talking about getting you know,
(07:36):
amongst the locals of transport, focusing on supporting local with
the places you're eating and staying. I think it's probably
like one of the biggest things because if you're going somewhere,
you're voting with your money like every day, and you
can either choose to support all the big chains who
(07:57):
like don't really care about you and aren't really part
of the place, or you can choose to give back
by supporting local and like you know, actually, yeah, voting
with your money that way.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, that's such a good message. Hey, thank you. Kate
really appreciate it. As always, you can find Kate Hall
on social media. She's on all of the good channels,
I suppose, just such ethically Kate and her name will
pomp right up. Oh here we go, Jack. We've just
installed smart switches around the house and cut our daily
electricity usage by twelve kilo hours per day. We turned
(08:30):
off the microwave print to USB, Chart's TV laptop power supplies.
ETCA is Derek, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Derek.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Ninety two ninety two nine two nine two is the
text number if you want to send us a message
this morning.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks b from nine am Saturday or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio,
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