On Friday I bought a new pair of trail running shoes. I have been holding off on doing it for ages but my court shoes just weren’t doing the job. Using shoes for exercise that they weren’t intended for – just plain silly. I have ended up giving myself yet another injury to my calf muscle by running with court shoes.
So, my new trail running shoes are a nice shiny green pair of Inov8 Terroc’s. Really lightweight and with a great tread on them I can get through the mud with ease now. In my court shoes I would be slipping all over the place. It was a great day for a run on Sunday and managed to clock up 6.5 km’s. This is the furthest I have run so far non stop. I’m rather proud of myself at this stage but have a long way to go yet. I’m trying to take it easy by improving my distance while trying not to inflict any further injuries.
I also put a vege curry together this weekend. Yum!
I realised that when we came back from Finland I had completed most of the trip write ups. Then we took off to Paris and I never finished the remaining few days. I had also put together a review on some of the clothing kit we took with us. Thought I would finish this off and post it. I will then have to get on to finalizing the other days and posting them as soon as possible.
We purchased a few items before our trip to Finland but most of the gear we took we use daily in the UK. Yes, how sad are we that we still haven’t managed to acclimatise to the UK weather.
I was quite concerned that I would be cold in Finland but I also didn’t want to take massive amounts of luggage with me. This was my kit list: 2 pairs of fleece lined trousers (shower proof), waterproof pants, 2 pairs of thermal leggings, 4 thermal tops, 4 pairs of mountaineering socks, 3 t-shirts, 3 microfleece jumpers, Berghaus jacket with Gortex outer, Rab Neutrino down jacket, 1 pair of Scarpa hiking boots, 3 pairs of gloves (inner for dexterity, warm layer and waterproof layer), polarfleece buff, hat and of course a cozzie and personals.
The real winners on the trip would have to be the polarfleece buff, Icebreaker thermals, Rab Neutrino down jacket and the Berghaus Goretex jacket. I started out using the Rab jacket for everything including skiing. Then I found I got too hot, sweated too much and this left me with a damp down jacket which was not nice when we would stop for breaks. This was no fault of the jacket but just that I was overdressed for the conditions. So, I switched to doing the heavy exercise in the Berghaus jacket and inner which kept me warm but not overheated and sweat excessively. Then when we had finished skiing I would swap jackets for the warmth of the Rab down jacket.
The buff was excellent and really needed. I pondered for ages whether to bother taking one as all my jackets have high collars and warm buffers around them. In all honesty I am so glad that Steve convinced me to take a buff. It was a permanent fixture on my neck for the entire week. Very useful during skiing to cover your face and ears from the cold. Ice would start to form in my nostrils so I would use the buff to cover my mouth and nose created a warm environment and no ice.
Thermal leggings and tops were purchased from Icebreaker. I baulked at the prices while purchasing them but they proved their worth in Finland. I alternated between a pair of Icebreaker leggings and some cheaper KMD ones that I bought years ago. The KMD’s worked but I preferred the Icebreaker pair for softness, slightly warmer, longer leg length and the ability to wear them for longer periods of time without getting smelly. Sounds gross I know but when you are out bush you don’t have a choice.
Almost forgot the head torch. Steve purchased 2 head torches before we left. These were fantastic pieces of kit especially for the night skiing. Sun up was normally around 8.00am but it wasn’t daylight until at least 9.30am. It started to get dark again around 2.00pm and night by 3.30pm. In short we didn’t get a whole lot of daylight hours. Although quite well lit around the town and the snow manages to provide a lot of illumination in the dark the head torches were great when lighting a fire in the huts or checking maps/signposts on the ski routes. The torches would generally indicate the batteries were going flat (due to the cold) but once back indoors they would come right again. I always carried a spare set of batteries in my inside pocket to keep them warm. Even with the low battery light flashing the torches kept going and never once gave out during the whole 7 days.
We only got temperatures down to -14 degrees Celsius so this is as far as the kit has been tested. The only area I was chilled were my legs. It was bearable but had it gotten colder I think I would have been in a bit of trouble. I generally wore a pair of leggings, a pair of fleece lined trousers and my waterproof covers. A pair of ski pants would probably have been a bit more useful had it been colder. One night Kerryn and I went out for a walk into town to mail some post and headed out onto the lake Aurora Borealis hunting. It was already -12 at the time and dropping so I added another layer to my legs – a pair of my flannel pj bottoms complete with Winnie the Pooh on them (under my waterproofs of course) this seemed to do the trick. I wouldn’t recommend this as a permanent option but in a worst case scenario it worked a treat for me. 
So I have handed in my notice (well in advance of the one month period I might add). Starting to look at shipping costs and trying to organise the last couple of overseas trips. Nothing too exciting as of course it is determined by funds.
It still seems so far away yet I know it will go quickly. I have to concentrate fully on keeping my mind at work when there are so many things that need to be dealt with. Nothing is ever completed here with just one phone call so you constantly have to be on top of things, get proof of conversations, agreements etc. Very frustrating and time consuming.
The weather appears to be starting to warm up (slightly) and the days are getting longer which is fantastic.
On Wednesday I took a day off work and went to Kew Gardens with Steve. We met up with Kerryn and Olivia for a day there. There was an incredible orchid exhibition on. Had a lovely time topped off with a nice evening meal at Cafe Rouge.
Also, a couple of weeks ago I heard about a Flashmob that was happening in Cabot Circus via a twitter feed that I watch. A flashmob is “is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails”. Wiki definition provided. Anyway, they are rather fun to watch. In this instance at 1pm when a whistle blew all the “undercover” attendees started a light sabre fight. As these are all very friendly, peaceful gatherings with the intention of having a bit of fun it went down really well. It was a great vibe, everyone was laughing and thought it was fantastic.
since I last blogged. Not because I have been ridiculously busy but more so as there wasn’t a lot to share. However, we have something to share now…we are going home to NZ!
That’s right I have parted with the cash (very painful experience) even more so than the hours of trawling the Internet trying to find the best bargain home. So we leave the shores of England on the 8th June, spending some time in Kowloon, Hong Kong (can you say Disneyland!) and then arriving into Auckland on my mum’s birthday. Happy Birthday mum you have 2 big, homeless children returning to you!
Now that we have made the decision to leave I think the stress is on and that has been making my lower back pain worse (pulled a muscle a few weeks ago). I can also feel the tension heavily in my shoulders. It is not that I don’t want to leave – believe me, it is time, but the actual act of moving countries is incredibly stressful. I should know, this is my third country move now. I think I am done with moving, at least countries for the time being. We are both tired and want to settle, be near family and friends, spend more time outdoors and have somewhere to hang our hat and say “I’m home”. It will be nice to be able to go to the bathroom and not have to take everything in with you (shared bathrooms are NO joy).
I am conflicted though. On the one hand I am thankful to be heading home to all our family and friends but on the other, I haven’t lived in NZ for 13 years! How will I cope with going from a population of 64 million to 4 million. I can’t just hop over to France for my baguette, salad and revitalizing shot of wonderful Paris.
Why did we leave NZ in the first place you might ask? First and foremost I have ALWAYS wanted to travel. One top career choice when growing up was “Travel Agent”. I guess it really started to take flight when my best friend at the time moved back to Australia (age 12). I was determined to go and visit her. I got a cleaning job with the next door lady for $5 every Friday after school as I was saving for my first passport and ticket. As you can imagine $5 wasn’t going to get me a ticket anytime soon but I did get a passport (I think mum actually ended up paying for it). I also had another trip mapped out where I would fly into Seattle, get the Greyhound coach up to Vancouver then take the train across Canada to Montreal. What I was going to do when I got to Montreal I wasn’t sure, but at some point Ireland was going to feature in my trip. So moving from NZ to overseas was about partially fulfilling this desire to travel but also experiencing something different and improving our career prospects.
My first overseas trip (as an adult) was to Fiji with my mum. After this (about 6 months later) I had convinced Steve to move to Aussie with me (not that he needed much convincing as he was keen for a new challenge). The plan was to spend some time in Australia and then do our OE to Europe. Little did we know we would be in Australia for so long.
Why were we there for so long? Besides Australia being visually stunning, I loved the anonymity of Australia when we first moved and the opportunities it presented to us. It gave me the time to find out who I was and what I was made of after having left home. Who was Carleen without her family and friends that she relied upon to fall back on? It absolutely strengthened my relationship with Steve as we had to work out everything together as we didn’t know many people so we had to talk things through with each other. Also, the weather played a huge part in lifting my state of mind and my health. While in NZ I had suffered from mild asthma, regular hay fever and on top of this my ongoing weight issues. I now understand how much the NZ weather had affected our physical wellbeing. Then when we finally made Australian friends they welcomed us into their homes where their unique Aussie “no worries” attitude and positive nature was amazing to behold. To us this was an incredible, positive change of psyche. I also thoroughly enjoyed being part of a church that I look back on now as having prepared me for England where we have failed to find a stable church home.
So now I have been traveling for 13 years but NZ is where we want to be right now.
It is K’s 30th birthday so we took a quick 2 day trip to Paris. Note to self-this is NOT long enough. To really relax and just enjoy the joy that is Paris I wish you a trip of at least 4 days minimum. Anyway, we were glad to see K, O and J if only for 48 hours!
A quick synopsis on some things that happened besides spending time with these guys. Generally our trips go off without a hitch this time it took a bit more effort but there are always highs and lows:
It snowed heavily for about 20 minutes the first morning but it didn’t settle. This was fab!
Our hotel was really lovely and quiet if not tiny! Bliss.
Spent the day in a lovely park celebrating K’s birthday! Cool.
I managed to hurt my back before leaving so was on panadol the whole time but did not let this deter me. Ouch.
Got on the wrong train for the airport. Stress.
Fixed that but then security wouldn’t let the slackline on the flight so Steve had to run back to the desks to check it in 20 minutes before flight was closing….freak out!
Phew. Now time for sleep and a wee baguette and cheese I brought home with me 
Day two of cross country skiing we headed to the Velhon Kota. Basically a kota is a hut. This one was a cafe in the forest which sounded like a great destination for a hot chocolate at the turn around point of a days skiing. At 7.5 kilometers it was a good distance given the skiing we had done the day before.
We just made it to the hut with 5 minutes to spare before closing time. The gentleman who owned the hut was keen for us to know we could stay and drink our hot chocolate while he was packing up.
The Finns although they appear quite standoffish are, we found, very friendly and keen to chat. They just prefer to get on with the job, in, out and then its time for a coffee and chat. Love it. So, we chatted to him for half an hour before we headed home as it was getting dark.
We weren’t too worried as we had our headlamps, extra warm clothing etc. One thing in this area, you may think you are isolated and then all of a sudden a snowmobile comes whizzing past through the trees, or you see car lights on a nearby road, or better yet, house lights twinkling from in-between the trees.
The kota is 20 years old and has no electricity. Inside everything was either lit by candles, kerosene lamps and the fireplace to keep it all toasty warm. The owner commutes to work each day on his snowmobile!
I have a new sport – Cross Country Skiing! Love, love, love it! The downhill skiing didn’t even get a look in even given that it was deserted most days. There is nothing like getting out into the forest with just your skis and the knowledge that to get anywhere its gotta be all you (and the occasional pleasure of a downhill section for a free ride).
Basically cross country skis are long, very skinny and have clips in the bindings that snap onto shoes that are similar to running shoes. You have long poles with a hook on the bottom and a foot (looks like an elks hoof) which assists when pushing off with the pole. You can either attempt to forge your own way across the snow or on the cross country tracks they have pre-cut that you follow along in on your skis. It is similar to a train and its tracks. This is classic cross country. There is also skating and telemark where the skis and boots are slightly different and you don’t use the pre-cut tracks. Only the front part of your shoe is attached to the ski so the remainder of your foot/heel is free to lift up and down in order to push off with. The arm opposite to the leg you are pushing off with is then used to push off on the pole to assist in providing forward momentum. Trying to work all this together takes a bit of time but once underway it becomes quite natural. The only thing I haven’t worked out is stopping or turning gracefully. Generally this was done by falling over as using the old snow plough usually saw me end up head first in the snow. I did manage to improve on going up hills and for the really steep hills, improved my herringbone technique.
We booked our skis for four days and did manage to get in some great trips. Day one was a tester around the Akaslompolo lake (currently fully frozen over). It was only a 3 kilometer trip around the lake but by the time we hit the cafe I was sweating bullets and ready to demolish a pizza. The last leg of the course had a bitter wind blowing through which meant significant wind chill and the need to continually stabilize yourself against the gusts.
After having recovered from the afternoon warm-up ski we did another trip that evening. This time heading out via the illuminated night track and into the woods. We were heading for a kota (fire hut) between a couple of the fells (hills). Taking our trusty new headlamps with us it turned out we didn’t really need them. The white snow reflected the fading light brilliantly. Then when it was dark (about 4pm by this time) we just continued following the white snowy path and let the cross country pre-groomed track keep us on course. The headlamps did come in handy when we got to cross roads so we could check the map and ensure we were heading in the right direction.
We ended up just at the tip of the Kesankijarvi lake where we stopped for a quick drink of water and chocolate. The water in Steve’s bag had frozen even with the insulation he had purchased for the tubing. Round trip of about 8 kilometers. I found it more comfortable and easier to control my body temperature skiing through the fell than out on the lake. The fells provided better cover from the wind and gave a consistent temperature so I managed to avoid overheating or sweating too much which thens becomes an issue when you start to cool down once stopped for any reason.
I have come to the thought that learning to ski at night is possibly a good thing. For one, there were some steep parts which I am sure I would have walked down had I seen them in daylight. At night they came up so quickly and appeared quite demure until you were speeding down them. Something has to be said for jumping into things “blind” sometimes.
We have returned from Finland with all our fingers, toes and noses intact. The anticipated -30 degree temperatures alluded us while we were there as did the Aurora Borealis. So what did Finland hold for us? A log cabin in the woods, surrounded by thigh deep snow, a low of -14, incredibly peaceful surroundings and the joy of sharing this all with friends.
We flew into Kittila on Sunday evening to be picked up by a pre-arranged taxi. Our taxi driver (Anne) had taken the liberty of also collecting our cabin key from the local real estate agent as well. Great hospitality.
As I was determined NOT to do a typical British resort week away this meant things were a bit tougher to find out about when you are doing it off your own bat. Traditionally with the resort holidays everything is included, flights, transfers, accommodation and meals. This also means it can be triple, if not more, than what you can do by booking as an individual. More importantly it means you don’t have to be herded into the same town as every other traveler on the flight where the resorts are tailored to tourists.
I booked our log cabin in a town called Akaslompolo, resident population of 400, swelling to 20,000 during the summer time. Of the 12 cabins in our immediate vicinity, when we arrived we were the only ones there. Throughout the week 2 or 3 other groups arrived but they appeared to be Finnish families coming to ski for a few days before heading home again. Our cabin was bliss. Two downstairs twin rooms, a mezzainne floor with room for at least 5 people, fully equipped open plan kitchen/dining and living room with tv/dvd and fireplace. Plenty of storage, 2 toilets, shower, washing machine and an indoor electric sauna. As it was the low season we got a good price on it which, when sharing with mates, really makes for a cheaper time than through a travel company.
Town was about a 20 minute walk which was very pleasant as you are continually surrounded by a winter wonderland. We did hire a car for a day which was a brilliant idea in order to get out of town and see some more of the area. Without a car you are quite isolated and with few public transport options, taxis could become very expensive if you wanted to see more of the area.
Cross country ski tracks are in abundance and the illuminated track for night time skiing was only about 300 meters from us. This is lit until 10pm at night. We made some good use of this track on our ski days/nights.
Shopping was completed at Jounin Kauppa where there is also a pharmacy, dry cleaners, grog shop and cafe. Prices on many items are rather high especially alcohol so bringing duty free in would be the best idea if you are keen on having some tipple over the week. General food items like milk, pasta, sauces, bread, cheese were relatively priced but meat was very costly. Especially reindeer. This was upwards of 40 euro a kilo. You can pick up some fairly cheap sausages for the kota’s (fire huts) but in short expect that as with any country if the food is low cost it will most likely mean high fat or highly processed. I did notice the microwave meals were priced on par with the pound but if you can live for a week on that stuff I feel sorry for you. If we were to add up the cost of food bought while eating out over the week I might have a heart attack so I refuse to go there. To give you an example, one day on a ski trip we were out in the middle of nowhere and decided to cop the charge on 2 rolls, 2 chocolate bars and 2 hot drinks…17 euro! Seriously though, what do you expect when there is nothing else around for miles? This was our fault for not being prepared. The local cafe did do a great special on a pizza and large coke for 10 euro. Steve and I shared the pizza as it was far to big for one person.
Wifi was pretty much non existent in the area. There was an internet cafe (corner Tunturintie and Sivulantie) and wifi available at the cafe in the supermarket centre. 3 euro for an hour at the cafe.
I really want to capture some of the ski trips we did so I will do these individually but in all the trip was incredible with a large number of memories, ideas and impressions that will sit with me for a long time to come. Also, it was incredibly difficult to find out a lot about the place before we arrived so I really want to get some information down here to assist others in future. If you do have any questions please feel free to email me and I will try to help out.
In the meantime, a post would not be the same without a few pictures now would it.
Today is our last day in Finland and there has been very few internet connections available. A larger post will follow once we return home tomorrow. In the meantime, we have had an incredible week full of cross country skiing, snow, snow and more snow.
It hasn’t been as cold as we were hoping, today it is -18 but we were expecting -30 at the very least. No Northern lights as yet but not through lack of trying.
Anyway, I am back to my reindeer and blue cheese pizza for now. One great thing about the cold and all this exercise is no worries about the carbs. Excellent!
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