Home of Father Christmas

We have just left Lapland, on the edge of the Arctic Circle, North of Finland where the daylight lasts for 3 hrs at this time of year. This is also know as the home of Father Christmas.

It took two flights from Berlin to get to Rovaniemi in Finland going via Helsinki. On arrival in Finland everything was covered in snow. It was white as far as the eye could see with the exception of the thin black lines of freshly ploughed roads. We were collected from Rovaniemi by Gary (Ga-rrrrrry) who was our exceptional guide for the next two days. We were welcomed by warm Finnish weather it was a whopping -13C. Tropical?

Our Arctic Circle adventures started with Gary collecting us on the first morning and fitting us out in black jump suits, snow boots and helmets ready for our snow trips. Really every trip around here is a snow trip as you do everything in the snow at this time of year. We hopped on to some snow mobiles (think a jetski with skis on it) which would be our main form of transport over the next couple of days.

Our first trip was out to the snow hotel which is built every year from snow and ice. On the way we passed through large forests, with all the trees displaying their white winter coats, travelled down rivers which had a 20cm ice layer on them and past reindeer frolicking through the snow. I've had a lot of illusions shattered on this trip, the latest being the reindeer are not brown contra to the images in New Zealand children's books.

The region where the snow hotel is nor-west of where we were staying and by far the coldest place we visited with temperatures of -23C. When we arrived  none of us could feel our face from the combination of wind and the freezing temperatures. Gary's eye lashes were frozen! There were 20 or so rooms in the hotel which had double beds covered in reindeer furs and the ice had carvings in the walls done by Lapland university students.  The hotel also had an ice bar, chapel and restaurant. Ten couples are booked to get married there this year. If you're happy to hand over 300 euros per person per night the temperature inside is only -2C. Warm compared to the outdoor temperature!

This was also the place where we experienced our first Finnish Kota. A Kota is a traditional Finnish home, octagonal in shape with a large open fire in the middle. We had a lunch of Salmon cooked on the open fire with bread, potato salad and beetroot salad. Delicious meal. This took us most of the day once we finished the 2 hr, 50 km snowmobile ride home.

The next day we got back on the snowmobiles and drove through some more forest tracks to a large clearing of untouched snow. This was to be the site of our extreme driving lessons, where Gary taught us to slide the snowmobiles and drive them on a single ski/having one side off the ground. Today was warm only -6C.

The reindeer farm was our next stop. Here we went on a reindeer sled ride, fed the reindeer and had a nice warm meal of mash potatoes and reindeer meat. Don't worry we were reassured that it wasn't one of Santa's. Reindeer actually tastes like beef. Great meal.

The husky farm was our favourite place of the day. Here we got to go dog sledding. We had a sled with six dogs and got to drive it along tracks through the forest and clearings for about 7km. It's something out of this world to be on the back of a sled cutting through the pristine environment which is the Arctic Circle with snow and trees as far as you can see either side. It is so quiet as the dogs are soundless apart from their paws hitting the snow. Well they are silent when they are moving. When they stop it sounds like all hell is breaking loose. They just keep running nonstop at the same pace they started. This was mind blowing. Loved every minute of it!

The last trip with Gary was meant to be to the Northern lights that night. Unfortunately the weather didn't come to the party,  clouding over and snowing. So a quick change of plans lead to an expedition with Garry and Kati (Karti) another really friendly guide we had met, out to a frozen lake to have a fire and try our hand at ice fishing. We ended up in the middle of a frozen lake and set up a fire on the ice which we sat around cooking sausages and drinking hot berry juice. As the fire heated up the ice around it started to melt and a moat formed around the fire. We drilled holes in the ice to see if we could catch any fish. They use live worms which you buy from the supermarket in plastic boxes filled with dirt. Our ice fishing left a little to be desired but sitting next to a hole in the ice on a reindeer skin with the only light in the area being our fire was an awesome experience. At the end of the night we drove off leaving the fire burning away on the ice. You would never do that in NZ but I guess water/ice doesn't burn. That was the end of our adventures with Gary who was an amazing guide with a great sense of humour.

This morning we visited Santa at his office. His workshop is in an undisclosed location as the sign stated seeing where the toys are made would spoil the magic of Christmas. We had a chat with Santa and got a family photo. He promised to come by our house this Christmas. Satisfied with that we spent the rest of the time exploring Santa Claus Village. It is hard not to believe in Santa when you visit a place like this with Reindeer, snow covering everything, Christmas carols playing and where everyone is in such a festive mood.

This has been our favourite part so of our trip so far. I know I have been going on about it but the snow is incredible. I've never been somewhere that is so snow covered you can fly 600km and only see snow. Then travel 100km on snowmobiles and still only encounter snow and ice. If you ever have the chance to go to a place like Finland it's a must do.

We have now landed in Munich where we spend two nights before making our way home to New Zealand via Tokyo.

BT