Go and get the latest NZ healthy food guide mag you kiwi girls. I have published an article there for keeping your man healthy.

We were watching the latest Narnia movie – Voyage of the Dawn Treader – when I suddenly exclaimed to my son, “I’m sure that’s White Island.” Sure enough, there it was – the steaming ocean volcano that I had spent my childhood looking out to each day. Situated about 30km out from Whakatane on the east coast of the North Island, White Island is part of a volcanic line that runs the length of New Zealand. “Would you like visit it?” I asked my son. Of course he did. As any nine-year-old boy knows, walking on a live volcano majorly boosts your ‘popularity rating’ at school – especially when it’s also in a movie!

This may sound more like a travel blog than a nutrition blog but each time I’ve been out on the boat with White Island Tours I have been impressed with the lunch they provide. It’s not gourmet cuisine – after all we’re on an adventure tour walking past deadly sulphur mounds, hissing fumaroles and bubbling mud pools wearing gas masks. After an hour or so on the island we rinse the corrosive volcanic ash off our sneakers before re-board the boat. I feel just like a kid again as one of the friendly crew hand me my lunch-box and let me help myself to a can or bottle of soft drink, juice or water. It’s great to have the choice of water. I open my lunch-box to see what goodies it contains. When writing about healthy school lunch-boxes I suggest it has 5 elements: a drink, something to fill you up, something to last i.e. protein, some fruit and a treat. This lunch ticks all the boxes. It has an egg sandwich to both fill me up and last me, some fresh watermelon and pineapple, and a mini chocolate bar – yum! There are also a couple of hot mini savouries that are high in fat but which make the lunch feel a bit more special. After all these people have paid good money for an adventure, not a health camp.

Speaking of money, if you’ve seen the movie, you may be hoping to find some of the sparkling riches that enticed Eustace. Unfortunately you have to bring your own riches but it is possible to make them sparkle – just dip your tarnished coins or jewellery in the acid stream.

The short answer is yes – you can eat mussels if you have high cholesterol. Mussels are low in kilojoules, cholesterol and fat. The little fat they do have is mostly healthy unsaturated fat with plenty of omega-3’s to help stabilise the heart muscle, reduce triglycerides (a type of fat in the blood), make arteries more elastic (which helps reduce blood pressure) and reduce blood clotting and inflammation.

Douse your mussels with butter, cream or other saturated fat and they will be more of a heart hazard than anything else. But if you eat them as we did at the Boat Shed Cafe in Nelson (northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island) – steamed with garlic, wine and parsley and served with a local pinot gris – your heart and your taste-buds will be very happy.

Last week we jumped on board the Pelorous Sound mail boat which chugs the length of Pelorous Sound three times a week delivering mail

“Don’t give me any dinner this week,” my husband said to me. “I’ll just have your fruit drink.” What delightful words for any busy mum to hear: No cooking real meals for a week! Well actually I did still cook a little something extra for myself and my son. But fruit drink every night was a great way to start off November – the month set aside in New Zealand to promote eating ‘Five-a-day’. Five-a-day means eating five serves of fruit and vegetables each day. It’s not that much. A serve is one average sized piece of fruit, half a cup of vegetables or a cup of salad. For children, a serve is the amount they can hold in one cupped hand.

I’ve worked out that my fruit drink has about 11 or 12 serves and 22-24 grams of fibre. Split between three of us, we just about hit our daily 5-a-day with one large glass! And no wonder my husband doesn’t feel like dinner: