What I Pack: Kirsty Cameron

Kirsty Cameron. Photo / Carolyn Haslett

Do you travel light or heavy?
As lightly as possible. Or at least that's the intention.

Cattle or first class?
Cattle on the family trips, business in the glory days of corporate travel.

I can't travel without...
A good book.

Are you a planner or last minute packer?
Big time planner. Lists, zip-top plastic bags, lingerie bags, it's a virtual Dewey system in there.

What's the best thing you've brought back from a trip?
Ikea Christmas decorations that come out every year, and a £3 on-sale Peter Rabbit plastic pinny I grabbed at Heathrow at the end of a business trip for my then toddler. I'm not allowed to pass it on even though she grew out of it years ago.

Most memorable trip?
A rail journey from Thailand to Phnom Penh with a group of repatriated orphans going home under the auspices of UNHCR. I was the journalist along for the ride. Unforgettable. The Dutch peacekeepers keeping lookout on the train roof all looked like Rutger Hauer, circa Ladyhawke.

What do you do while on the plane?
Catch up on new movies, read or, like I did on a recent trip back from Fiji, watch back to back episodes of The Thick of It. Luckily the people around me were equally engrossed with their screens so didn't seem too annoyed by my giggling.

* Kirsty Cameron is the author of new book The Kiwi Bach Companion (Random House, $39.99)