LAST DAY IN LAPPLAND

HELENA'S DAD TOOK US FOR THE BOAT RIDE

HELENA'S PARENTS( MAARIT AND HANNU) DID A FANTASIC BBQ

YUMMY

MAARIT DID THE SMOKING OF THE SALMON IN THEIR COOK HOUSE

ONE OF THE NEW KITTENS THAT I SAW BORN

TONY AND HELENA

THE RIVER NEAR SIRKKA.

THAT HILL IN THE DISTANCE IS LEVI

ONE OF THE MANY SUMMER COTTAGES.

Hey friends and family,
My last day in Lapland was a nice quiet one.
Helena's dad had invited us to go on his boat on the lake near his house , followed by a farewell dinner, BBQ at their place for me.
I will just add the pictures as that speaks for itself.
It was a nice day, but when the wind comes out it was cold.
It got to 16 C that day.
I am now in Helsinki after a good night sleep in an airport hotel.
The trip down was long: 2 1/2 hours in the bus to Rovaniemi. Then on the train for 10 hours, with a changing trains once at Oulu.
Then when I got to the city I needed to find bus 615, that was supposed to take me to this hotel.
When I got to that bus, the driver told me it is bus 650, hat stops right in front of the hotel.
Luckily that bus was 2 stands behind 615. It was an other 20 minutes in the bus. But I am here now and I had a good sleep. There is a shuttle from here to the airport. I take the 11.40 am shuttle. The plane leaves for Amsterdam at 14.00.

The next time I write will be from Paris.

FROM TROMSO TO ALTA TO SIRKKA

" OUR" CAR, REALLY TONY'S CAR THAT TOOK US PLACES.

THE TOWN OF ENONTEKIO, A SAMI TOWN

THE BORDER INTO FINLAND FROM NORWAY( NO CHECKS ANYMORE BUT IF YOU HAVE GOODS TO DECLARE YOU HAVE TO STOP)

TROMSO

HELENA IS ASKING ME" CAN YOU EXPLAIN ME THIS BLOUSSE?"

EGON( FROM SHERRY) SHOULD GO TO THIS RESTAURANT. DID THEY COME FROM NORWAY?

HELENA AND TONY.

SAMI LAAVU

THE CAMPING AT ALTA

BECAUSE OF THE RAIN THERE WERE SO MANY WATERFALLS

AN OTHER LAAVU

THIS WAS THE COLDEST SPOT, 9 C. SNOW NOT FAR.

TROMSO

TUNNELS ON THE WAY TO ALTA

THIS TUNNEL IS 3.2 KM LONG.

APPROPRIATELY A POLAR BEAR IN TROMSO

THE MAIN SSTREET

COLD AND RAINING 12 C IN TROMSO IN JULY.

TROMSO BRIDGE

Tromsa was nice but raining, cold with 12 C.
To get to Tromso, we drove over the very beautiful and high bridge and then through lots of tunnels under the city to take us to the city centre.We went to some of the market and shops in the centre..
The buildings are colonial and wooden and some are very old. One shop on the market, sold fish, when we looked in the display window we saw red meat. We asked what that was. "Whale" , he said. WHALE???? We shouted back at him?? I told him he would be a criminal in NZ and most other places. He told me its pilot whale and that there are plenty of them. Well, I was so disgusted I walked away.....
We did some more window shopping and good laughs( see pictures)
Tromso has a nice high bridge , because it is on an island. High bridge because the cruise ships must be able to sail through and see the Fjorden. We saw Lingenfjord, very long nice. Drove through lots of tunnels. More Fjorden....Lots of waterfalls. Rein deer.

We had a good drive to Alta, but It was disapointing about the weather. And my good intentions to have a dip in the Norwegian sea ( Artic sea of 9 C) didn't come about for obvious reasons....
The whole day yesterday , it was raining a lots and cold,brrrrr about 12 C. And this is a beautiful route along the Fjorden in the summer??? what happened?.
It was 9 C at the top of one of mountain passes. Bleak and cold. Not much to see other than hundreds of big waterfalls falling everywhere from the steep mountains to the water below.
It took us a lot longer than expected. Along the road you sometimes see traditional Sami people, dressed in their colourful blue and red clothes, usually the older ones still dress like that. They have their stalls and sell handy crafts and rein deer skins.
We started late and arrived at 9.10 pm in Alta. The lady was waiting for us and was hoping we would come. She obviously didn't have the system we have( credit card details etc)
Anyway all was good and we got a nice tourist flat for the 3 of us. It has a kitchen bathroom/toilet and lounge, free wireless internet and 2 bedrooms.
The camping ground looked a mess with a huge big puddle of water and mud and the lady explained it had rained so much, she hadn't seen that before at this time of the year at this level. There was a bog and cars had to try avoid getting into that.
Poor tents. This is summer!!! It was 11 C. In NZ ( I heard from Brian) it was raining also, but 18 C( in the bay of Plenty)
Anyway, although I was disapointed at not having seen the Fjorden in all its glory on a fine day, I was also philosophical about it, in that when people come to do the Milford track, they have booked it a year ahead, then go and do the walk and end up with snow and or rain or both with clouds and no visibility.
Or others do the boat trip and have clouds and see nothing....
But with us, we were lucky that we had the Milford boat trip last December in full glory, blue sky etc. But now we had clouds and rain and poor visibility. So be it, there is nothing you can do about the weather.
So we had a good sleep and drove away at 11 am after a relaxing morning in the tourist flat.( checking out here is always 12 noon)
It was dry but still 12 C, and better visibility.
We drove along the A 93 towards Kautokeino and at the border the scenery became more like tundra, with short shrubs and short trees and small lakes and rivers.
Just out of Alta we drove through a gorge similar to the Kaurangaheke gorge.
In Finland we stopped at Enontekio, a Sami village/town with 90 % Sami people living there.
We had some lunch there and then carried on driving till Sirkka, did some shopping there and then drove home to Rauduskyla.
Here is was 16 C when we arrived, so not that warm. But we were welcomed by a thousand nasty hungry mosquitoes all at once!!!
The weather forecast is for warmer tomorrow, about 20 C.
So Tony had driven his car very well, a volkwagen golf sport line car 2004. It was good wide tires and excellent brakes, and 6 gears( manual).
We are safely home now and tomorrow is my last day in Lapland.( Lappi)
We are doing a trip on Helena's Dad's boat on the lake tomorrow if warm.
Friday I have to go on the long journey to Helsinki with 2 1/2hours in the bus and then 10 hours in the train.
I stay one night in Helsinki, then fly the next day to Amsterdam , where I can stay with Winnie again for one night. Then its off to Paris...
Stay tuned .
Marianna.

NORWAY( AND A BIT OF SWEDEN)

THE TOURIST FLATS AT THE CAMP GROUND

VIEWS TOWARDS TROMSO

THE HARBOUR BRIDGE OF TROMSO

MY BEDROOM BUNK

THE RIVER BY THE CAMP GROUND.

THE ROAD TO TROMSO

US AGAIN

HELENA AND TONY

THAT MOUNTAIN LOOKS LIKE A SLEEPING GIANT

THE FJORD NEAR TROMSO

LEFT, A NORWEGIAN SAMI LADY SELLING HER HANDICRAFTS, AND ME SHARING OUR KATIKATI ADVERTIZER, AND RIGHT A SWEDISH SAMI MAN. tHIS IS IN nORWAY ALREADY.

OR SHALL WE READ THE PAPER AT THE SWEDISH BORDER??

STATE HIGHWAY 8, TO TROMSO

WATCH OUT FOR WANDERING MOOSE!!!

THIS WHOLE ROUTE REMINDED ME OF THE ROAD TO MILFORD, SOUTH ISLAND.

KATIKATI ADVERTISER IN NORWAY BY A SAMI STALL SELLING REIN DEER SKINS AND OTHER CRAFTS.

STILL IN FINLAND, ON THE WAY TO NORWAY BUT VIA SWEDEN.

IN NORWAY NOW, THIS ROCK( SHAPE) REMINDED ME OF LAKE WAIKAREMOANA

LOOKING DOWN A GORGE

SHARP TOOTH/ROCK

GOING INTO SWEDEN

DRINKING FROM A SPRING IN SWEDEN

GOING BACK INTO FINLAND( WE WENT FROM FINLAND INTO SWEDEN AND THEN BACK INTO FINLAND TO BE ABLE TO GO INTO NORWAY.)

Norway, Tromso.

We left at 10 am this morning, but by the time we left Sirkka it was 10.45 am.
Tony had forgotten something so we had to go to Helena’s parents to pick it up.
Tony is Helena’s boyfriend who is coming with us, in fact, he is driving in his car with us.
When we started to get into Sweden, the road suddenly was very bad, lots of holes and uneven bits.
That went on for ages. Then we went back into Finland again, over the bridge.
When we started to see the snow mountains, the whole scenenery and road so much reminded me of Fjord land and the way to Milford.
The only difference is here you drive along the Fjord and the villages are along the way.
We stopped by the entrance of an other Fjord, and beside the Road was a Sami lady selling rein deer skins and other souvenirs.
She agreed to let me take a photo with her and the other man beside her who is a Swedish Sami man, she is a Norwegian Sami lady.
When we got into Norway, there was an hour time difference. So we had to put our clocks an hour back.
The scenery at the camp site is also beautiful with a crystal clear river.
We got to the camp at 7 pm. But in reality it was 6 pm because of the time difference.
The camp site is very similar to the New Zealand motor camps, with tourist flats, cabins, a kitchen for camper and camper and tent sites. All clean and green. The snow mountains are in the view from here and there is a gondola going up the mountain just like in Queenstown.
Truly God has a sense of humour when he made New Zealand, because I recognize so much of NZ here. When he made NZ, he decided to represent almost every country in the world with the different scenery of each country.
We have a tourist flat here with 2 bedrooms, kitchen and lounge with t.v and bathroom/w.c.
Tomorrow we’ll have a look around in Tromso and then drive up to Alta.