Thursday 31 December 2015

In the afternoon of New Year’s Eve the heavens opened and it poured down, ruining the plans for New Year’s Eve dinner on the beach. Mark and Laura, the managers of Kandolhu, and their staff did a fantastic job of reorganizing everything and setting up dinner in the various restaurants. We were joined for the evening by a lovely newlywed UK couple, Mark and Emma. We enjoyed their company while we partook of an excellent eight-course degustation meal including all sorts of sumptuous dishes made from really top notch ingredients. After dinner the rain had retreated and we settled at a table on the beach, behind a temporary bamboo wall that had been dug in to shelter us from the wind. A bottle of champagne rounded off the evening in style as we saw in the New Year. We enjoyed splashing in the lagoon and watching the bioluminescence sparkling in the sand. Shortly after midnight we retired to our bungalow to find a welcoming New Year made bed.

Friday 1 January 2016

After our final breakfast on the island we were farewelled as we departed on the boat for the short trip to Safari Island where we met the float plane at the raft we had arrived on. A very quick 5 minute flight took as to the W Resort island where we waited about 10 minutes for a few guests and their copious amount of suitcases to arrive. This 30+ year old DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 seaplane was soon airborne again for the 20 minute flight back to Male. We were surprised at the large number of these planes parked up at the jetties when we landed. It is apparently the largest seaplane operation in the world. We were a bit apprehensive about whether we would make our connecting flight as we had to pick up our suitcases from the Hulhule Resort and only landed in Male about 85 minutes before our departure time. Luckily things in Male work on island time. Roger was able to convince someone in a van to take him to the hotel to pick up the bags while I chatted to the guys at check in. Remarkably they seemed completely unperturbed.

Saturday 2 January 2016

The rest of the trip through Singapore and on to Sydney went very smoothly and we touched down just before 10am. We checked into the Shangri-La hotel where we had been upgraded to a suite with a fantastic view over the harbor bridge and opera house.

In the afternoon we wandered around Barangaroo. This area has been recently landscaped and developed into a spectacular park and recreation area with the shoreline lined with stone all cut and shaped to fit neatly into place. Hundreds of people were gathered enjoying themselves and the environment. We strolled round to Darling Harbour  where we watched The Force being Awakened (Star Wars) at the I-Max theatre. After a few drinks and nibbles at the Horizon Club lounge it was time to call it a day.

Sunday 3 January 2016

After a lazy start to the morning we wandered around the markets at the Rocks. In the early afternoon we took a stroll up the Harbour Bridge. We opted for the “express” route which goes up through the centre arch showing off the engineering of the bridge construction before reaching the top, then crosses over the bridge and brings you back down the other side. Our guide, Matt, was fantastic – particularly when the heavens opened about a third of the way through with the rain coming in sideways and us all getting absolutely drenched. Surprisingly it didn’t detract from the climb at all – in fact I think it made it even more memorable. Matt said it was the worst conditions he had ever gone up the bridge in! It was good to get out of our wet shoes.

Constructed in the late 1920’s/early 30’s, and costing 6.25 million Australian pounds, 1500 men were employed on the construction, which was not paid off until 1988. The steel was brought by ship from England and fabricated on Milson’s Point, the site now occupied by Luna Park. 16 men lost their lives during the construction; only two feel from the bridge, the remainder were killed in the fabrication yard. One man fell from the lower deck of the bridge, landing in the sea and survived. He was back at work within a couple of weeks and presented with a gold watch for his tenacity. It was fascinating looking at the old construction photos of the bridge where guys were just strolling around on the steel work with no safety harnesses or anything.

Monday 4 January

It is a dreary day in Sydney and after another lazy start we decided to take advantage of the Pylon museum that was included with our Bridge climb ticket yesterday. This turned out to be well worthwhile – inside the pylon are a number of displays showcasing the making of the bridge that was quite a feat in its day, and we also were able to climb to the top for more fantastic views over Sydney and the harbour.

Then it was time for our farewells as we headed our separate ways (Roger to Auckland and me to Albury) to get ready for our next adventure in a couple of weeks time… Cuba here we come!

Monday 28 December – Saturday 1 January

Pretty uneventful, but long journey via Helsinki and Singapore – we arrived in Male at about 11pm. By the time we arrived in Singapore Roger was no longer standing out or inviting incredulous looks from the flight crews, which he certainly had when he showed up at the airport in Rovaniemi in shorts, t’shirt and jandals when the temperature outside was -6’C and dropping.

After a very short sleep it was a 4 am start at the Hulhule Hotel. We left our main bags in the hotel storage. We definitely won’t need boots and cold gear for the next few days. We arrived at the terminal for the flying boat check in at 5am; from there we were bused to a flash lounge where we sat for less than 5 mins before being bused to another lounge. Outside are a number jetties with a dozen or so Trans Maldives Airways float planes alongside. Soon we are on board taxiing out into the sea for take-off. It is as we get airborne I appreciate how busy this island airport is. Last night after we disembarked and were waiting for our baggage there were another three Boeing 777s that stacked alongside the one we had arrived in.  From the air we can now see dozens of private jets stacked away alongside the runway plus six or so large jets alongside the terminal.

We flew southwest for about 25 mins before the pilot put us into a steep dive (I almost had to check that the pilots weren’t wearing white head bands with the rising sun on them). We pulled up alongside a raft from which we were boated to Safari Island. All the other passengers were staying there. Another boat soon arrived to transport us 10 mins NE to Kandolhu Island, also situated in the Alifu Alifu Atoll.

We are greeted by Laura, the office manager, and escorted to our bungalow by Ruby. It is situated on the north end of a row of bungalows set on piles in the sea. This place is stunning with service like one would only imagine. There are 30 bungalows and around 125 staff most of whom you seldom see.

A ten minute walk takes you right around the island, which is thick with pristine jungle which all the buildings blend into. There are four restaurants, a bar, gym, dive shop, library and of course a spa.

We spend our time here relaxing, snorkelling, eating and enjoying the well-stocked bars. We even have a full wine-fridge in our room! We also made good use of the spa.

The snorkelling is good with a large variety of fish including black and white-tip reef sharks and turtles. The coral is quite diverse but not as colourful as in some areas. Unfortunately the weather is not ideal with strong winds most of the time meaning the water is a little murky but we enjoy ourselves anyway. There are four channels from the island and we can snorkel to one straight off the deck on our bungalow. The channels take you over the reef to the drop off – it gets very deep very quickly. At one point when we snorkel past the end of one of the jetties there are large schools of bait fish.

One evening we take a sunset cruise on an 85ft boat with four other guests. We sip champagne and watch a glorious sunset as we circle a deserted atoll about 45 minutes from Kandolhu.

We tried each of the restaurants. All of the food was fantastic – fresh and beautifully presented. The Market is the main area where breakfast and lunch are served, right next to the bar. On the first night we ate at Sea-Grill, where they had a display of all the fresh fish they had caught that day as we arrived with a variety of cooking methods available. On night two we ate at Olive, an Italian restaurant upstairs from the Market and last night we ate at Banzai, a Japanese teppanyaki-style place that takes only six guests at a time – the only place where bookings are required. We enjoyed a delicious meal there with four other guests, a Portugese couple currently living in Switzerland and an Austrian couple. Tonight there is a gala New Year’s Eve 8-course degustation meal, which will be served on the beach if the weather behaves.

Roger: Thursday 24 December

Iina our guide was ready and waiting as we returned from breakfast at 0930. As we did the one hour drive to the Luxury Action offices by the airport it was only -5’C, considerably warmer than yesterday’s -23.5’C.

In a very warm basement we are kitted out with helmet, boots, pants, jackets and gloves. A short drive and we arrive at the 3 snowmobiles (skidoos) for a quick brief on driving, which pointed out the go and stop devices and hand warmer settings for the handle bars, followed by “don’t pass me” and we were on the move. We headed off up a track into the forest quite slowly for a start.

We stopped so Iina could check we were ok, then set off a little faster. There are a maze of different tracks in this forest. They have separate tracks for skiers, dog and reindeer sleds and snowmobiles.  There are stop, give way and speed limit signs. We covered lots of ground over the next five hours including stopping for a nice lunch (warm beetroot soup) in front of an open fire in an open hut on a hill.

As the day went on we got to go a little faster, hitting 90kph at one stage. Apparently in the racing world these machines get driven at 200kph. Around 3pm the big blue appeared (the sky turns a hazy blue colour) then it was dark. We got to head off road and have a play in the fresh snow. Opening the machine out I was surprised by a mound that briefly launched the machine into the air.

Snowmobiling video (Password: Going Places)

It’s almost eerie how quiet it is around here. The snow and the trees have an amazing dampening effect to the point that you can’t hear other machines coming until they are within a few metres.

After packing up and handing in our gear Iina drove us the hour journey back to Beana Laponia where we enjoyed a xmas eve dinner of reindeer meat, vegetables and lots of other nice food.

Iina, our guide, has really impressed us, not only with her punctuality and great personality but also with her willingness to share information on the local district and her endless enthusiasm, ensuring we have a great time.

Sylvia: Friday 25 December – Christmas Day

We woke very early again this morning and made calls back to NZ to wish various family members a wonderful Christmas. It was +2’C outside and raining, very unseasonable weather here. We had originally planned to go tobogganing on the slope out the back of the hotel but with the poor weather decided instead to relax indoors until our 1pm pick up for the one-hour drive to our accommodation for the night at the Arctic Snow Hotel and Igloos.

The Arctic Snow Hotel is built each year at the beginning of November. They make snow as there is not enough natural fall by then, and compress and mould it into shape. In the hotel are a number of basic rooms, some decorated suites, a chapel, a restaurant and a bar, all made out of snow and ice. The beds are made in ice frames with a mattress covered with reindeer skins. The inside temperature is between -3’ and -8’C. The suites are all decorated with different ice carvings with coloured lights built in behind the ice for accents. The basic rooms are pretty austere – just square rooms with beds. The chapel is quite lovely although the seats look pretty cold. More on the restaurant and bar later.

Videos of Snow Hotel Interior (Password: Going Places):

It is quite an interesting property and definitely something different but unfortunately they have missed the service aspect a bit and it feels very much like a production line affair. We checked in, received details of our bookings for the afternoon, dropped our bags in our glass-domed-igloo and headed off for lunch in the kgotla, a traditional high-roofed kitchen area. A lovely young woman served us delicious salmon, cooked over the open fire, followed by apple cake with vanilla sauce.

At 4pm we headed off to our traditional Finnish sauna, hot tub and snow sauna experience. This was great! After spending time in the “normal” sauna, we headed outside (in our flimsy spa slippers) and climbed up some snow steps to a hot tub on top of a snow building. After soaking a while it was time for the snow sauna. This really was an experience. We entered a fairly small room entirely built out of snow with wooden benches on each side and a big plastic bin thingy at one end. It turned out this was the “sauna heater”. Once the door was closed we ladled water on to the heater and the room filled with steam, instantly warming us… and totally blinding us… and then the ice started melting and dripping on us… quite a sensation. It cooled quite quickly and then the whole process was repeated. We were only allowed to stay in for 10 minutes before they had to shut it down to refreeze. Apparently about 3mm of ice melts each time. They can use the snow sauna about 70 times before it is done so they are always building new ones. We finished off back in the traditional sauna and were toasty warm at the end of our hour-and-a-half total experience.

Next stop was the ice bar – smack bang in the middle of the Snow Hotel. With great mood lighting, a large ice table, reindeer skin covered seats and ice shot glasses it is quite a stunning room. Neither of us was really in the mood for shots so we enjoyed a couple of hot drinks instead.

At 7pm we headed over to the ice restaurant for dinner. It is not often you eat dinner rugged up in multiple layers including hat and gloves but necessary here. The restaurant consists of three chambers each with about 10 ice tables with reindeer skin covered bench seating. Wooden blocks are screwed into the ice – acting as insulating placemats. A three course meal is served reasonably quickly. The food is obviously cooked somewhere else and reheated in the back but was warm and tasty.

After dinner we retired to our glass igloo for the night. The igloo is fairly basic but warm and comfortable. There is even an alarm to wake you if the northern lights come on. All in all a pretty good Christmas day.

Roger: Saturday 26 December

We awoke early to the glare of a full moon and clear sky lighting up our glass roofed igloo. The alarm hadn’t sounded during the night to wake us should the northern lights have lit up the sky during the night. There has been a dusting of snow overnight but it feels quite warm at -5’C

Iina was there to pick us up early. We drove to a local reindeer farm. SieriPoro farm (all 10 hectares of it) has been in the same family for 500 years. They run around 200 reindeer. In the summer they are let loose in the forests. A number of them have bells and a few have GPS trackers to help the herders locate and return them to the farm in the autumn where they are held for the harsh winter.

We fed nuts out to a mob of young deer before heading of for the sleigh lesson.

A paddock held about 20 stags, each tethered to a pole. The stags without antlers were in poor condition having just come through the rut. The castrated males still have antlers and will for a while longer. Tervi, a castrated stag, is lead from the paddock and a sleigh is attached. I sit at the back and Sylvia in front of me. The herder hands the single reign to Sylvia and off we go. The first lap of the 400 odd meter track is done almost at a gallop, the second a little slower.

Video of Reindeer Sleigh Ride (Password: Going Places)

It takes four years to train a sled deer. They have a green ear tag so if they get killed on the road the insurance company pays out extra for these skilled beasts. Apparently about 400 reindeer a year get killed by cars and trucks.

We pay a visit to a paddock of hinds one of which is white.

Next we enter a shed with a moss roof and partly dug into the ground. A fire graces the middle of the room which is very warm. A lunch of reindeer stew and potatoes, all home grown, is very tasty. The owner tells us how his father turned the farm into a tourist business in the early 90s when times got tough. All the buildings are built from trees felled on the farm. The owner and the two herders we chatted to were really friendly and helpful. We finished the visit with the purchase of a couple of reindeer skins.

We headed to Iina’s office to drop the skins off in time to see a fairly large Russian-made private jet pull up, apparently carrying some Victoria’s Secrets model and family who will be Iina’s guests tomorrow.

The local museum, Arctikum, had an excellent exhibition on the arctic and another on the history of the local area. The city of Rovaniemi was 90% destroyed by the Germans when they withdrew to the north in late 1944.

For a reason unknown to me we had to leave hurriedly just before 3pm. We headed down a back road arriving at what in the summer may have been a paddock. There is a racy looking car parked at the edge of it. Sylvia had organised a surprise for me. I hopped in the passenger’s seat while the instructor, a retired rally driver, took me for a spin around the ice track. He explained how normally they did this on the river but with the rain and warm winter the ice was not up to it yet. They had iced up the paddock by spraying lots of water on it. Tyres here at this time of year all have studs in them. They make a huge difference in holding the car on track. Next it was my turn in the driver’s seat. The next 30 minutes was a lot of fun, drifting the car from side to side to line up the many sets of cones on the course.

The driving over we headed back to Iina’s office to get changed into shorts and t shirt ready for the flight to the Maldives.

Here are a few videos from our last few days. The password for all of them is: Going Places

Husky Sledding Video (long):

Sylvia Driving Huskies Video:

Snowshoeing Video:

Roger: Tuesday 22 December

After another night of not enough sleep, we were picked up by Anniina and driven 40 minutes to Husky Point. At -3′ C it’s quite warm for this time of year. Last week it was -30. We were issued boots, gloves and overalls before checking out some husky pups.

They have around 100 Alaskan huskies here. Today they are running ten teams of six.Heading up a track we came to a number of sleds with dog teams lined up ready to go. This was a very noisy affair with dogs in full bark and jumping around in spite of sleds being tied down to stop them moving. We were told this is part of the warm up process. The four harnessed teams raced away and we got to harness our teams.

There is a bit of skill to this. Select the correct size harness, get the dog out of the kennel, hold with your knees against their stomach, slip harness over neck and then lift legs through belly part of harness. Hold on tight as you lead the dog to attach to a sleigh tow rope. Apparently if you let the dog go it’s off – where to I am not sure but we were somewhat relieved we didn’t let one go.

Team harnessed, Sylvia took a seat on the reindeer skin in the sleigh and I was on the back skids, driving. Anniina’s team led out and our team pulled hard on the anchored sleigh. I released the rope and we were off in pursuit of the front team. These guys only have one speed “full steam”. On the uphill I assist by pushing with one foot, on the downhill I use the brake with one foot to keep the rope tight to stop the sleigh hitting the back dogs.

We followed trails through the forest, then across and around the edge of a frozen lake. We swapped over from time to time and I got to sit in the sled while Sylvia drove.

Eventually we parked up near a tepee. Two of the dogs had to be removed from the teams and tied up separately as they are renowned for eating their harnesses. In the tepee a fire was quickly lit with dried silver birch bark. Soon a hot lunch of meat and potato soup, sausages cooked on sticks over the fire, and rather bitter coffee was served.

After lunch we were back on the sleds racing along. These dogs are often used in 1000k races. In teams of 14 for hill and forest races or 18 for flat open country racing they cover up to 200ks a day. These are all Alaskan huskies and were introduced to Lapland in the 1950s, mainly for racing. Nowadays they are used mainly to cart tourists around to help pay for the racing. The owners of Husky Point have won many races throughout Scandinavia over the past few years.

The temperature dropped a couple of degrees and light snow prevailed on the way home.

We enjoyed a light evening meal back at Beana Laponia prior to which we took a brief stroll outside to look at the stars in the now clear -13 degree sky.

At around 9.30 pm the owner banged on our door to inform us that there was a faint glow of the Northern lights. Coat on, camera and tripod in hand we headed outside to witness what can only be described in the pictures below:

Sylvia: Wednesday 23 December

We woke very early again to a crisp and cold morning. It was -23’C when Ina arrived to pick us up at about 10:30am. The sun was just beginning to rise and the sky was glowing pink and orange. The trees were all covered with hoar frost and sparkling white in the headlights – they look like they are studded with diamonds.

We drove about 40 minutes back towards Rovaniemi, arriving at a large shooting range just near the local military base. A couple of local guys met us there and we braved the icy cold. First stop was some skeet shooting – I managed about 5 wayward shots before my fingers went numb. Roger managed to do all four stands, ten rounds each and didn’t seem to be feeling the cold at all. His aiming improved with each stand. (We were using a Beretta semi-automatic shotgun). We then headed up the hill and they pulled out their Finnish sniper rifle (.308 marksman’s rifle) to do the test that hunters have to pass to be able to shoot moose and bear. They send one moose and one bear shaped target out at the end of the range and you have to get 4 out of 5 shots within the circle on the shoulder. The gun must have been pretty good because I managed to get all 5 shots in a nice wee line in the target circle on the moose. Roger got all his 10 shots in two tiny spots in the target circle on the bear!

They had lit a fire in the back of the rifle shooting area and it was nice to warm our hands up. We roasted sausages over the open flames before heading off.

Next we climbed about 500m up a hill to a large bird tower. In the biting cold it is quite challenging to breathe and climb (well for me anyway) and figure out whether you are hot or cold! We climbed up the tower for some great views over the surrounding area.

We then drove about 15 minutes out to a lovely area by a lake. By this stage the sun had set and the near-full moon was rising. We strapped on our snow shoes and headed out for a walk. It is not a particularly elegant exercise as you walk through the deep snow. Without the snow shoes we would be thigh deep, with them you only get in about knee deep – easier but I could still feel it in my legs after a while. The best parts were in between the trees where it was quite icy and we didn’t sink so much.

Our last stop for the day was at a forest sauna. This was set up by a woman and her husband at their lakeside property. There was a sauna hut, a barbecue hut and a hole in the ice in the lake that was kept open by a pump in the water. She explained the process. We washed using warm water in bowls with ladles, then into the traditional wood-fire sauna room where you lie down with your legs raised. We beat ourselves with birch-leaf whisks always from the extremities toward the heart. When we were toasty warm we wrapped towels around us, donned flimsy spa slippers and headed about 30 metres along the snow-covered path (remember it was about -21’C) to the hole in the lake where we dipped, Finnish style, into the icy water. Of course the water is warmer than the air but freezing nonetheless! It is quite interesting trying to get your feet back into the slippers to head back up to the sauna to repeat the process. They have to take the pump out of the water while we are there because it is electric. They go down periodically to use sticks to keep the hole in the ice open but even so a very thin layer of ice had formed over the water by our second dip!

After the sauna we enjoyed some delicious reindeer soup, followed by some gingerbread and then lingonberry cake in the little barbecue hut which was warmed by an open fire. We then headed back to Beana Laponia for a light dinner before calling it a day!

Roger: Friday 18 December

The flight across the ditch to Sydney was uneventful; that is until I picked up my bag. It must have been fired at the edge of the carousel with great force, bending the pop up handle housing so the handle would not move. Air NZ has contracted out its baggage claims to Dnata. It should have been a very simple process of “as we can’t get the bag fixed by tomorrow when your flight leaves, go and buy a new one and we will reimburse you for the new bag”. The staff at Dnata were highly trained in “how to piss people off and be obstructive”. To cut a long story very short, after the best part of an hour on the phone to various people, most of whom didn’t have a clue, it got resolved.

Sylvia arrived up from Wodonga in the evening. We spent the night with long-time friends John and Lesley at Neutral Bay. John excelled with his pizza cooking skills while we had a great catch up over dinner.

Roger: Saturday 19 December

After a leisurely breakfast we drove to a bag shop at Mascot to replace my bag. John and Lesley bought a couple of new bags also as they too are heading to Lapland in a couple of weeks to do an ice driving course.

After checking in at Cathay we headed to Dnata, old bag and receipt for new one in hand. The staff at Dnata were in fine form. They must have just watched a customer service training video by “Fawlty Towers”! Another long story short I gave them the old bag and got folding off them for the new one.

Roger: Sunday 20 December

After nine hours to Hong Kong, a two and a half hour stop-over, and a further 11 hours in the air, we landed in Helsinki. It was around 6am and pitch black as we drove into the city. As we arrived in town and turned into Pohjoisesplanadi (the main street) we were taken aback by the amazing Xmas lighting display running through the park.

After a few hours’ sleep at the Hotel Indigo we took a stroll into town. It was 10.30am and with the shops not opening until noon there were lots of people around. Xmas markets have been set up in a local square selling all sorts of food and local goods. At Stockmans, a large retail store, people were gathered around with their kids looking at the Xmas window displays. At ten minutes before noon a large crowd gathered at the doors ready for the noon opening.

At one we went back to the hotel to meet Pekka, who with his son had driven in from the local countryside for a catch up. Pekka is a Warrant Officer in the local defense force. He is also one of the guys from the sauna experience here last year (read ‘Training in Europe’ for that one)> We had a good chat and a stroll around town. As it got dark around 4 Pekka headed off. Sunrise here today is 0923hrs; sunset 1512hrs.

After taking some photos of the lighting displays and enjoying a meal at a local Mexican place we headed back to the hotel for an early night.

Sylvia: Monday 21 December

I now better appreciate the impact that sunlight has on helping overcome jetlag. Up here where it is dark for most of the day and the daylight tends to be pretty thin and watery we are having quite a bit of difficulty adjusting to the new time zone…

We were awake bright and early and after a leisurely breakfast we caught a taxi to the airport for our one hour twenty minute flight to Rovaniemi. There had been no snow in Helsinki but up here everything is white. The temperature though is still very mild at -1’C and pretty clagged in.

We were met at the airport by Ina, our guide for the week, who drove us into Rovaniemi where we had lunch at a charming traditional Lappish restaurant. Gluggi (mulled wine) and a range of appetisers: blueberry herring (very salty), smoked salmon, reindeer pate, goat cheese and beetroot roulade etc, were followed by a delicious reindeer rack on parsnip puree and then cloudberry cheesecake. We were feeling pretty full after that!

Ina took us the 50-minute drive to our accommodation for the next few days, Beana Laponia, a brand new (opened two days ago), adults only lodge out in the middle of nowhere. The road system here is very good, despite being covered in snow they were not at all slippery. After looking around the lodge we settled in for another early night.