Yleinen

Birkebeinerrennet – Norwegian celebration

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This year Norwegian Worldloppet race Birkebeinerrennet was organised also in skating style. The skating race was a day before the original Visma Ski Classic Birkebeinerrennet; on Friday 17th March and called FredagsBirken. It was the same track with similar services, but less skiers, and the elite skiers of course focused for classic race. Norway isn’t too far from Finland, so we decided to load the car and drive all way from Tampere to Lillehammer. We were with a big team this time: Marja, Jukka, Juhani and Antti. It was Juhani’s first Worldloppet race and he of course now has the passport too!

We took the ferry Viking Grace from Turku to Stockholm on Wednesday evening. At the ferry, we ate at the buffet (look at these photos!), and the heavy carbo-loading started! Katri Helena, a Finnish singer, was entertaining us.

The ferry arrived 6.30 am on Thursday morning to Stockholm. You really need to be on time at the car deck.

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The drive from Stockholm to Lillehammer was long and, to be honest, a bit boring. Swedish landscape is first with vast, flat fields, which later changed to deep forests. It took us altogether 9 hours to reach Lillehammer.

TIP! Buy the groceries on the Swedish side of the border, a lot cheaper than in Norway! Our stop was in Charlottenberg, there is a big shopping mall.

Lillehammer is a little village (about 26 000 inhabitants) in Oppland. The city centre is a late 19th-century concentration of wooden houses. The beautiful view is towards the northern part of lake Mjøsa and river Lågen, while the mountains surround the village. We got to stay the two nights in Ida’s very lovely and cozy wooden house, found from Airbnb. We also took care of her cat meanwhile.

After arrival, we walked to the Håkons Hall Sportssenter, which was the main venue of the Birkebeiner weekend in Lillehammer. Other main area was in Rena, nearby the starting point of the race. We never really got whether it is better to stay over in Rena, or in Lillehammer. In the end, it seems it doesn’t make difference.

TIP! It’s quite an uphill from the town to the hall, it’s not a bad idea to go by car.

We picked up the bibs, checked the shops and tried to find out where the bus to the starting of the track (in Rena) departures. The entrance fee to the race was about 125 euros (the cheapest package), and besides it was needed to buy a bus ticket for 35 euros to get from Lillehammer to Rena. So, Birkebeinerrennet is one of the most expensive races.   

TIP! The bus to Rena departures from Håkons Hall, so you must be there again in the morning, and park the car (the parking can be far, reserve time!).

The bus departure was at 7 am and the ride took more than two hours to the start area. The bus was full of fit and beautiful Norwegians. All the information was given only in Norwegian (nothing too serious, we thought, and anyway understood something). First the bus stops at the village of Rena, but don’t jump out, the start area is still few kilometers further on.

The weather was great, it was sunny and few degrees below zero. But. There was a strong wind of 15 m/s against us through the whole race! In Birkebeinerrennet the skier must carry a backpack of 3,5 kilos, and they check it in the finish roughly with hand (no serious weighting with scale – at least not for us). Carrying a backpack is because of historical story where the birkebeiners were skiing and carrying the future king Hakon from Lillehammer to Rena. Why didn’t we also race that way, the wind would have blown us fast to the finish!

The track itself is very demanding. In the woods the wind didn’t affect that much, but when we reached the top of the mountains, it was really hard. We skied as a team only the first 2 km, and after that everyone made their own lonely battle.

 

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There were some spectators, but not as many as it would be on the ”real” race date the next day. But the ones who were there, were very supportive, and Marja got some beer too. The official drinking stations weren’t too special, actually opposite, it was hard to get a drink (nobody was giving anything, you needed to fight your way through the rush), and there wasn’t as much to eat as in other Worldloppet competitions. See, we are the ones who have time to observe this kind of stuff!

On the way, Marja saw Polish elite skier Justyna Kowalczyk testing her skis for the classic race. She skied to the victory with kick wax, once many other women pushed all those hills up double-poling! Well done Justyna!

Even it was a long, lonely and hard ski race, we all finished, even we skied this race twice in a one day: the first and last time! Or at least that was the feeling at the finish line… Our results:

Jukka 04:19:54 (270/365)
Marja 04:36:15 (41/60)
Juhani 05:27:45 (341/365)
Antti 05:44:44 (352/365)

Unfortunately, they didn’t give any medals for the finishers, but at least we got little pins. After the race there was some food, but it was very hard to walk through the food station “production line”, as the skiers had their skis in their hands, and then someone gives soup to the other hand and sausage to the other (third?) hand. Well, two trips there and back, and we got the food. Just something to improve for the following years.

We assumed the finish would be near Håkons Hall, but it wasn’t, it was still another bus ride to get to the hall and back to our belongings and the car.

TIP! You can leave your extra clothes etc. at the starting area in Rena to be brought back to Lillehammer, but note that the finishing area is far from the Håkons Hall (which is where the clothes go). In the finish area, there is for example beer in a little cafeteria, but all our money was together with the left clothes, and in Håkons Hall! The biggest mistake of the trip!

After 54 km of skiing we were very wrecked and tired. We moved to our house and ordered pizza from local pizzeria to be delivered to our house (and yes, it’s really expensive in Norway!). All in all, we were happy we finished.

But it’s true, it’s not Norway to travel to get “skier’s self-esteem” rising. Average Norwegian taken from the street is most likely better skier than you. If you don’t want to lose your imagination of being a really good skier, don’t start with Birkebeiner. Those fit, pretty, thin and fast Norwegians with their perfect technique aren’t even dropping any snot when they ski. So… perfect! But at least we have the pizza…. 😉

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The next morning, we were watching the classic race from TV, and then started to drive to Oslo. We dropped Antti to the airport to fly back to Tampere, and continued our weekend for two more nights in Norway. We stayed at Hanna’s and Henrik’s place in Blaker, visited the nearby village of Årnes.

On Sunday 19th there was the Biathlon World Cup mass start in Holmenkollen. We have booked our tickets long before, and took the train from Blaker to Oslo (45 min journey). There was plenty of space in the forest where we were watching the race. It was a good race indeed, Kaisa Mäkäräinen was third and Mari Laukkanen sixth.

We also found a hut where they gave out free pølse and lompe (sausages and kind of bread), which we heated up on open fire.

We were at the Chapel Hill, next to the supporter team of Czech Ondřej Moravec. It’s always cool to meet the Czech people, dobrý den! As there was nobody from Finland taking part on men’s mass start, we of course supported the Czech and Ondra!

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Once the men finished their race, we were able to go to the stadium too (they don’t check the tickets once the race is over). From there we got the see the price ceremony, and some athletes passing by. We got few more signatures to our flag too, one of those was French Quentin Fillon Maillet!

On Monday, we drove again to Stockholm to catch the ferry. It took about 7 hours from Blaker to Stockholm. The ferry Viking Line Amorella was half-empty, only few truck drivers. We spent time in Tax Free shop, taking care we have enough ingredients to produce hot chocolates on our trip to Ylläs in Lapland. The success of the ski trip caught us only now, with few days delay, as there was a pub quiz, and Marja and Jukka were in the final! And as a surprise for everybody, Marja won it! They asked how much there is water in strawberries (90%) and what card game is ending with something from “the Bold and the Beautiful (Bridge). So, it’s time to change the major from cross country skiing to pub quizzes! As a price, she got more chocolate and of course, invitation to take part to another pub quiz cruise later in May. Who wants to join?

All in all, our trip to Norway was a nice long weekend, with loads on eating, some skiing, and few beers. The Worldloppet season is now done for us, but skiing season still continues in Lapland. You might see us helping in organizing Visma Ski Classic Ylläs-Levi on April!

Christchurch

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It was the Christmas Day we left from Wanaka towards the East Coast of the Southern Island. After a long tramping to the Roy’s Peak, it was really hard to drive all way to Timaru, the town our next night was booked. On our way we passed lakes Pukaki and Tekapo. Tekapo is famous for its beautiful night sky. It must be overwhelming, but we should learn in Finland how to promote these natural things.

We continued our way towards north in the morning, so we didn’t see the town of Timaru itself. We drove the coastal road, but decided to make a little trip before Christchurch. We drove to the Banks Peninsula, to check the village of Akaroa. Banks Peninsula was formed following violent eruptions of the two volcanoes and the result is incredible scenery. Just 75 kilometers from the city of Christchurch, Akaroa is a historic French and British settlement nestled in the heart of an ancient volcano. It’s actually the site of the only attempt to establish a French settlement in New Zealand.

It must have been the exhausting driving, but we really felt that it was too much to drive, after seeing so many beautiful places in NZ, visiting Akaroa didn’t give us too much of anything. We do see why the people love it (it’s a charming village with colonial architecture, galleries, craft stores, and cafés), but for us, it was just another village behind curly road, which you still need to drive back too.

In the evening, we reached Christchurch and our motel. We really enjoyed our stays in the motels, you can park your car nearby, and make the food on your own (pasta and tuna…). The prices are also good.

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Christchurch is New Zealand’s largest city and the gateway to the Canterbury region. It’s on the way to recovery after the earthquakes of 2010/11. It’s the New Zealand’s first-founded city too. The earthquakes left bigger damage we ever thought we would see. Nobody really commented anything about the city to us, not in negative, not in positive way. But in our opinion, it was worth to see, it’s at least something very different!

 

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A popular shopping destination is Re:START, located in the Cashel Mall. The shops are small containers.

The next day we continued our way towards West Coast again, as the road between Picton and Christchurch was damaged due to earlier earthquake (2016), and we had only two days left on the Southern Island before the ferry back to Wellington.

Before we left Christchurch, we visited the Airforce Museum of New Zealand. It has a remarkable collection of memorabilia and a captivating history. Interactive displays and collections dating from before World War I are there. It was very interesting museum, and for free!

After the museum, we stopped by to buy some food, and continued towards West Coast. The scenery changes constantly as we drove around a hill, over a mountain pass, across a river, past lakes, ski fields and unique geological features passing great scenery on Arthur’s Pass.

The best part was ancient monolithic limestone rock formations at Castle Hill. We did little bouldering (no talent on this sport!) on these cool rocks. It was a very windy spot tho, but for sure worth to stop for.

The next night was in Greymouth, where we spent rainy day celebrating Jukka’s birthday. That story was told in our story of West Coast (https://ubt.fi/2017/01/23/south-island-the-wild-west-coast/). The last day in South Island we simply drove all way up to Picton, stopped on the way to pick our own cherries, ate a dinner out (no motel this time!), and waited that the ferry would leave in the night. It’s cheaper to take the ferry during the night, and we found nice sofas to sleep on.

Next morning we woke up again in Wellington. Now it’s our time to check out what is the Northern Island really about!

Gatineau Loppet – Snow guaranteed

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This season we decided to get our first overseas stamps to our Worldloppet ski passports. The Gatineau Loppet is held in Québec in Canada, at Gatineau Park close to the capital Ottawa. We flew through Amsterdam with KLM, and on our way, we had a little stop in Amsterdam.

Tip! If you have time between the flights in Amsterdam, it’s nice to drop by to the city itself. The train (one-way 5,20 EUR) goes directly from the airport and the journey takes about 15 min.

The whole travel time was 24 hours, so it was good to be at the spot few days before the race. We stayed in hotel Crowne Plaza in Gatineau, just across the Ottawa river, on the side of Québec province, while Ottawa is in province of Ontario. It was good to choose the hotel recommended by the Gatineau Loppet as we got to meet the other participants and share the (shuttle) rides with them.

We liked the hotel, we had spacious room and there was a gym, a pool and even a sauna (although it wasn’t allowed to throw water to stove!).

TIP! We found the travelling with the local buses a bit hard, or we just didn’t get it. If you take a bus, the ticket is sold by the driver and you need to have the exact change. Using Über was cost-efficient (6-10 EUR to Ottawa), and also walking across the river is possible and takes about 35 min to the Parliament Hill.

They just got 30 cm of fresh snow on the same week as the race. As again this year, there is lack of snow in southern Finland, we were so happy to land directly into real winter! We had three full days to check around in Ottawa before the weekend with races. Ottawa was so cool with its snowy roads and scenery. And without spikes in the tires, the way to open the roads was to spread salt, and it indeed was everywhere: the floors of the shops, our shoes, windows of the buses… All covered with white salt.

The core of the capital is relatively contained, and many of the top sights can be easily accessed on foot. The first two days were really cold and getting our shoes wet every now and then, we can only recommend: Take a lot of clothes, and very good winter boots when visiting Canada!

Ottawa is full of official government buildings, museums and art galleries. We visited the Parliament Buildings with a free guided tour (to be booked early in the morning for the same day tour). Our tour included also a visit to the Peace Tower with glorious views of the city.

In front of the Parliament Buildings there is the Centennial Flame, which was first lit in 1967 and it burns continually. Besides, there was a little skiing rink and one skier too!

There is also really nice old market area called ByWard Market (http://byward-market.com/en/home/). The area is located just east of Parliament Hill, across the Rideau Canal, and offers a colorful collection of craft shops, cafes, boutiques, bistros and especially a café with famous “Obama cookies”. We ate in that area almost every day, and enjoyed the atmosphere. Besides, there we first came across the local delicacy called BeaverTail!

We made a bus trip to Tanger Outlet Mall (https://www.tangeroutlet.com/ottawa), outside the center. It’s a long bus ride (1 h), but they had special sales going on and in this cold and windy weather, it wasn’t crowded. We found also some shops with stereotype Canadian clothes…

Canadian War Museum (http://www.warmuseum.ca/) is housed in a stunning modern building and it looks at the country’s military history. Canadians have seen their share of the world’s battlefields, and the museum was super interesting! After spending few hours there, we needed to stop as there was too much information coming to our little heads. We really recommend to stop by for a visit, especially on Thursdays, as the entrance is for free from 4 to 8 pm.

TIP! There is an easy ski trail of about 16 km starting behind the War Museum and heading west (http://skitrails.xcottawa.ca/skitrails_SJAM.php).

Running south through the city, the Rideau Canal is a playground of the city. The canal is UNESCO World Heritage site, and in winter the canal, at 7.8 km long, turns into world’s largest skating rink (http://rcs.ncc-ccn.ca/). It was the main attraction of Winterlude festival, and of course we rent the skates (20 CAD each) and had wonderful winter day at the canal. We were lucky to save the skating day for Friday, sun was shining and it was warm and pretty. And again, it’s the BeaverTail time!

The Winterlude Festival is held every February when the city is celebrating Canadian winter. And for us, it seems it’s worth to celebrate! So much snow and real winter! We visited Crystal Garden in Confederation Park.

On Friday, we started to get ready for the races. Our friends from Finland joined us in Canada, and we collected the bibs from the event center in Mont-Bleu High School (20 CAD taxi ride from the hotel), which was next to the tracks in Gatineau Park (http://www.ncc-ccn.gc.ca/places-to-visit/gatineau-park/things-to-do/cross-country-skiing-gatineau-park). Park has 200 km of trails to ski!

Our team member Antti had a mistake in his eTA entry form (who can anyway recognize if it’s ‘O’ or ‘0’ in the passport…?) and after time taking problem solving, he ended up taking another flights than the rest of his group, and the luggage was left behind. So, Friday we spent shopping new skiing gear for him at the ski show at the school. It was really good that there were many brands and shops at the event, we really liked those and their good deals. What more, we met a Finnish/Canadian man promoting high-class sport glasses, ZiZU Optics (what a great name for a brand!).

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On Saturday it was the time for the classic style race. As not so good classic skiers, we took the safe side and skied only 27 km, and saved the powers for Sunday. There were 280 skiers in this distance. Jukka’s overall position was 143, and in men series 106 out of 175 with time 02:38:24. Marja was 168th being 49th out of the 105 women. Her time was 02:46:48. We have bought new Salomon Skin skis, and that helped so much, no waxing problems! Antti was the toughest of us, and did the whole 51 km with time 04:59:04 and ending on position 267 (out of 385 skiers). He was the second best in his class “Men 70 +”. Well done!

The whole happening was full of good spirit and nice humor, and it was seen for example in the finish, where they provided the skiers a glass of beer. Oh, we so needed that! Also, there was a man in a beaver hat playing guitar and singing, that gave really nice feeling after finishing the race!

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Photo: Gatineau Loppet

In the evening, they held a cocktail party for the Worldloppet passport holders at the school. It was a very nice happening, with good food and international atmosphere, we met so many people from different countries, skiing indeed connects the people. Also, Pierre Harvey, one of the greatest Canadian skier and cyclist ever, was given a prize. Jukka is not washing his hand after shaking it with him!

To get ready for the Sunday, we needed to find some food in Gatineau, and we ended up in “Pizza Italie” (http://www.pizzaitalie.com/), just around the corner from the hotel. The man behind the desk was so sympathetic, and hoping to see us in the Olympics. To make that sure, he fed us with so good food, we even got a free tasty portion of local specialty, poutine. At least it shouldn’t be about lack of food if there is no success!

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On Sunday it was to be a very warm day, and it was now the time for skating style. Our distance was the full length, 51 km. The skis were prepared for -5 C, and the reality was somewhere in +5 C, the snow was melting in front of our eyes. In this weather, also the downhills needed to be skied, no chance for a rest, as it just didn’t glide! It was really hard, but we made it, a little bit under 4 hours.

The scenery on the way were anyway magnificent, and the food they offered in drinking points was very nice (chocolates, energy marmalade, bananas… we could have spent even more time there!). There were 313 participants, and Andy Shields won it with impossible time 02:23:30. Jukka was 184th with 03:53:50 (163 out of 273 men), Marja was 202nd with 03:58:37 (25th out 40 women). It didn’t go as nice as the plan was, the weather was hard for us. Only 10 min faster, and we would have gained so many positions! Next time….

Nevertheless, we were the best (and almost only) Fins on both days in our categories! Antti took part on Sunday for the shorter race, 27 km, being 203rd out of 253 participants with time 02:23:50. He was waiting us in the finish line, that was great!

At the finish there was again beer and local band! Besides, while we picked up our gear, we met friendly Americans, who also gave us beer. This starts to seem we were there only to drink beer, hmm…

After the race, we were talking to the people in the shop area at the school, made again many new friends.

There were some difficulties with the shuttle bus to the hotel (supposedly we were late every time…), but there were so many friendly people taking us back in their cars and helping whatever we needed. That’s the best part having this most expensive passport ever: to meet the people and share the fun at the races! Especially here in Canada, the people were so kind and somehow happy over the fact we traveled from so far to only take part in their race!

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Photo: Gatineau Loppet

Last night in Canada we went out for dinner in Gatineau to a restaurant Gainsbourg (http://www.gainsbourg.ca/), and ate big burgers. Before the departure on Monday afternoon, we still had a chance to meet the other Finnish skiers at the ByWard market and take home some maple syrup.

Our flights were again with KLM, but the first part was by bus from Ottawa railway station to Montreal Airport.

TIP! If you are booked to KLM/AirFrance bus, it’s enough to be there 15 min prior to departure, all the formalities are done once the shuttle takes you to the airport.

The trip to Canada was one of the best ski trips we have done, and we wish more people from abroad would go there to enjoy the Canadian hospitality. Gatineau Loppet is among the rare races, where they for sure have snow every year! Or what do you think from these great photos borrowed from our new ski friend Brian Nilsson from New York?

Picture by Brian Nilsson
Picture by Brian Nilsson
Picture by Brian Nilsson

Big thanks to the local ski club XC Ottawa (http://www.xcottawa.ca/) for excellent tips for Ottawa and for very informative web pages. Also, many thanks to Pierre and Nicole and the team from Gatineau Loppet for the advice and help!

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Our next Worldloppet race is already booked… Stay tuned!

Ski with the best, hangout with the rest!

 

South Island – The wild West Coast

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As they advert: “The Tasman sea pounds this region’s 600 km stretch of coastline and the great ocean road from Westport to Greymouth affords spectacular views.” Yes, as long as it’s not raining… The West Coast offers a big variety of weather conditions. In the West Coast there is more protected land that in any part of New Zealand. There are rainforests, clean rivers and lakes and unique glaciers. Besides there are small (almost dead) towns from the Gold Rush days.

On our way from Nelson to the West Coast, we drove along the Buller River. It’s the Coast’s largest river and there are scenic gorges on the way. It was a warm day, and the river was so lovely!

We stopped to overnight in Westport into a motel. We really liked to stay over in the motels, you get the car next to your room (easy to move the things), you can cook your own food and get a bit feeling of home. Besides, those are always easy to find. The price level is also around the same as staying in a hostel in a private room.

After the morning routine of adding sun screen all over, we started to drive south from Westport. In the heaviest rain… The most spectacular sights on our way were the Pancake Rocks and the mighty blowholes at Punakaiki (http://www.punakaiki.co.nz/). Those coastal rocks really look like enormous stacks of pancakes! Again, something we have never seen before!

We got there just before the tourist busses (be early!) and in between rain shower, luckily. It’s said to be one of the most popular sights in NZ and the walk is really easy, so be prepared to share the way with plenty of other people.

We visited also few other spots in this Paparoa national park. The Punakaiki Cavern is hidden away on the eastern side of the main road, just 5 min north from the Pancake Rocks. It’s a very short walk, that leads to the stairs up to the cavern entrance. We should have had a torch with us, the cavern seemed to go really deep. It was a bit scary place for us, there was nobody else, and there were stalactites dropping from the ceiling, and there could have been some scary spiders or bats…

Just few kilometers south, there is a starting point for Inland Pack Track. It starts from Waikori Road. To access there, you must open a gate to a farm and it looks like it’s private property, but no worries, just drive there and watch for horses using the same road. We walked only shortly, over the hanging bridge and bit of the rain forest. And there was a break in the rain, we had the lunch too!

Part of the West Coast region is also a village of Reefton. We past that on our way back to north. It’s an old gold mining town, and its visitor center is worth to stop by, they have a nice exhibition of mining! Otherwise the town was a little bit like a ghost town, but pretty anyway and surroundings are great as it’s at the heart of the Victoria forest park.

Brunner mine site is 11 km east of Greymouth, and it’s easily accessed from road no 7. There is a nice exhibition and remaining of a mine.

On our way back up north we stayed one night in Greymouth, which was booming on 1860’s during the cold rush. That’s the town known to be the end stop of the TranzAlpine train, which goes between Christchurch and Greymouth, over the mountain range. For us, in this place wasn’t really anything to see. We visited Monteith’s Brewing Co. to celebrate Jukka’s birthday. The brewery is open for public tours and it has won many prizes, but to be honest, we think the beer wasn’t anything too spectacular there. And if you order a tasting plate of 7 different beers, you don’t expect there to be one glass of cider? After that we stopped for a beer in an empty Union Hotel. It was a ghost town, mainly anyway because of the Christmas season, we suppose (or hope).

As mentioned, the weather at the region is often rainy. The average rainfall is 2575 mm, and it’s usually is high-density downpours. But without, there wouldn’t be the beautiful unspoiled rainforest and magnificent glaciers of the region!

This is us in Hokitika, and in a spot called “Sunset Point”.

Tip! The roads are flooding easily (where are the ditches??), be careful and believe the orange warning signs while driving!

Down the west coast road our next stop was the village of Franz Josef Glacier. The village is 5 km from the glacier, and there are lot of backpacker’s hostels. As the Christmas was coming, Marja tried to decorate the gingerbread (found Swedish versions from a shop!) in the hostel.

It was cold and rainy, but the next day we were lucky to avoid the biggest storms while checking out two glaciers. Franz Josef and Fox glaciers reach the lower rainforests. It’s a rare opportunity to experience a dynamic glacial environment in a temperate climate. The ice cut through the valleys and flow through the rainforest to just 270 m above sea level! To actually reach the ice, they offer helicopter tours, but we were satisfied with the tramping from the car parks as close as possible.

Franz Josef walk was really nice, easy, and it took about 45 min to reach the look-out.

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Fox glacier walk was shorter, but ends up closer to the ice.

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From glaciers, we continued our journey south along the west coast. It was rainy and windy, it’s always hard to stop the car and go out. But the breaks are indeed needed! Here are some photos from the beach of Bruce Bay.

Another little stop was at Ship Creek Walk and Monro Beach.

From the village of Haast we turned towards inland. And just like that, the sun started to shine again!

Haast highway has numerous lookouts, walks and waterfalls. We were checking these from WikiCamps app, and there were just too many to even stop by. We chose to make a longer walk in the Blue Pools, just north of Makarora. Blue Pools have glacier-fed water and it’s so clear you can see the bottom. We saw few people jumping off a bridge, that was crazy!

 

 

South Island – The northern part

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The ferry over the Cook Strait (Wellington – Picton) takes 3-5 hours. The views arriving to Picton, a little picturesque town in the north of Southern Island, are magnificent. It’s the area of Marlborough Sounds, and the ferry arrives on one of the four main waterways: Queen Charlotte Sound.

Later, we came back to Picton after our driving through the Southern Island, and waited for the ferry to cross on the night.

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Due to the ferry schedules on the most hectic holiday season, we were left only with only 12 nights in Southern Island. Christmas time hit directly between our travels as well, so the scheduling was pretty demanding.

Our driving route on Southern Island:

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And here is roughly the route and places we slept over:

Picton – Nelson (1 nights) – Westport (1 night) – Franz Josef (1 night) – Wanaka – Cromwell (2 nights)– Te Anau (3 nights) – Milford Sound – Queenstown – Wanaka (1 night) – Lake Tekapo – Timaru (1 night) – Akaroa – Christchurch (1 night) – Arthur’s Pass – Greymouth (1 night) – Reefton – Picton

That’s a long way, and thinking back, we should have tried to cut it shorter, there was too much driving per day. So much to see, that you get greedy!

Tip! Roads in NZ are different, reserve time! The travel times given by navigators are not really matching, even it’s possible to drive 80 km/h, the reality can be 60 km/h.

Our first stop was Nelson, where we stayed one night. As we anyway arrived late, we spent the following day there.

Nelson Market is held on Saturdays Montgomery Square, and it’s definitely worth for a visit! There we met also a local carpenter, who eagerly showed the great works of his hands.

Nelson is having the geographical Center Point of New Zealand on Botanical Hill, it’s a short (20 min) walk up there and the views are really nice.

We drove out to beautiful Rabbit Island (Moturoa), a great swimming beach where we enjoyed a picnic. Didn’t swim, too cold water!

From Nelson, we took the direction to the West Coast!

NEW ZEALAND – Auckland and Wellington in two days

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Our flight from Melbourne to Auckland was over the night. It took only four hours, but due to time difference, it was suddenly morning when we arrived to Auckland! Hamish, the coolest guy in New Zealand, came to pick us up. Long time (11 years) no see!

Auckland is New Zealand’s prime gateway and largest city – but not the capital! The first thing Hamish showed us was the volcanic cone Mt. Eden (196 m above the city). From there we saw into the quiet crater and all directions of the city. Running after him up to the hill was quite a task first thing in the morning, but it was a great way to start the day!

We had only one day to spend in Auckland before getting our rental car and heading to South Island. This day we spent wandering around in the city like zombies, as the night in the plane wasn’t really long sleep (if any). Nevertheless, we saw for example the Ponsonby suburb (cool new shopping area), Auckland Art Gallery (new Maori art exhibition) and bit of Queen Street. More of Auckland stories will be published once we are again back!

Next, we had the ferry across the Cook Strait to Southern Island, so no time for the northern island this time. The ferry sails from Wellington to Picton.

TIP! Book your ferry tickets (two options: Bluebridge or Interislander) early enough! In the holiday season (starting few days before Christmas), it’s really hectic!

We needed to drive from Auckland to Wellington in one day (almost through the whole northern island)! What more, we had to catch our hotel before they close the reception. It took about 9 hours, and we didn’t even stop too much on the way. Not to be recommended, rather take your time!

In Wellington, we stayed in a nice hotel (reasonable price) with cooking and laundry possibilities, our recommendation: Gilmer Apartment Hotel (http://www.10gilmer.co.nz/).

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In the morning, just before our ferry departure, we had time to do little run in the harbor area. The coolest thing was that we saw stingrays resting on the pier, really big ones and many of them! Great!

We had in the southern island 12 nights, and after that we returned again in Wellington by ferry. That time we had more time (one whole day) to check the city itself. There is a shopping street called Cuba Street (said to be the coolest street of NZ), the government buildings and pretty botanic garden. The garden can be reached by cable car, but we took a little morning run there.

Our top recommendation is the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongareva (https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/). It’s the national museum and art gallery with free entrance. They have a really spectacular exhibition over the World War I fight in Gallipoli. Besides, there is a skeleton of Phar Lap, the most famous New Zealander 😉

 

”No worries” – our thoughts of Australia

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Writing this, we are in one of the most amazing places we’ve been while our journey. It’s Freycinet national park, a village called Coles Bay. In Tasmania, in a chalet with a view to the mountain and to the Great Oyster Bay. Wine on the other hand and chocolate on the other, friends to spend time and play one more round of UNO card game. Sun is soon setting, it’s 25 degrees, birds sing. We are spoiled. Is this what it is? Well, for us, it really has been like this.

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We thought to share some ideas of how we feel Australia has treated us and what the ones travelling down under could think would be useful. Some of the ideas are small, many are irrelevant… not sorted with importance, just some intuition. So here we go:

  • The people. Yes, it’s all true. They are extremely helpful and nice, smiling and relaxed. Asking “how are you” really means something, and they also honestly tell how their day has been, even it has been bad. So, it’s a real question, not only compulsory “hello”. They happily advice where to go and what to see. Jukka even got the wooden stick taken out from his feet in a private medical clinic for free (without any paper work at all)!
  • The animals. We wouldn’t skip a trip to Australia because of fear of spiders. We haven’t seen any dangerous animals at all. The only animals we’ve seen are the most unique ones: cassowary, and the platypus. Besides we have seen one echidna in Tasmania. And the birds! Those are simply amazing, all the colors and what more, the sounds! It’s like in a Star Wars movie!

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  • Driving the car is essential in Australia. Moving from place to place really requires a car. Don’t be afraid, you get used to the left side traffic. The traffic is easy going and smooth, the drivers give you space, and are flexible (other than we have ever experienced!). And camper van, it’s a must! Our recommendations:
    • Download WikiCamp application to search the accommodation and good sights on the road
    • Take with you: a torch, some tape (handy for many things), space blanket to keep the dash board cool, clothes pegs (in Finnish pyykkipoika), marker pen (to mark your food in common fridges), laundry powder (small amount), small plastic bags to store food, power bank (solar powered would be extra handy), salt/pepper and small travel towel (easy at camp sites to wash face and hands)
    • The cost of camp sites are 25-40 AUD per night per van
    • The tourist tours and routes are marked with brown signs, just go for it!
    • Control the chaos in your camper, take many small bags to sort things (swimming stuff, running gear…)
    • The traffic rules are similar to ours, and the signs nice and easy, often written
  • Note that nobody might stop for you if you hitchhike, we tried in Coffs Harbour after the rally event just to get a ride to our camping (4 km), but no luck, people only laughed at us.
  • Our recommendation for camp sites in New South Wales is “North Coast Holiday Parks” (http://www.northcoastholidayparks.com.au). You can count the prices are ok and amenities clean and tidy. Also, every 7th night is for free. They have the best ever camping site we’ve seen: Bonny Hills camp site.

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  • Go and buy your meat for the BBQ from the local butcher. The meat is cheap, and very good! And bbq you can do anywhere in public picnic spots.
  • Dan Murphy’s. The alcohol is sold only on liquor stores. Other than in Finland, those are nevertheless not under monopoly, but prices vary a lot. Dan Murphy’s liquor store is the cheapest, with good service and free wifi. The casks of wine are the most cost efficient way! There are even consumers’ recommendations on the shelves.
  • The internet. Thinking back, we should have taken Australian pre-buy mobile. On the other hand, there are plenty of free wifis around, libraries, tourist infos, Woolworth, McDonald’s…
  • Finnish products! Yes, we have seen Fazer’s chocolates, and besides some Finnish bread! Didn’t buy tho, we survive without. Oh, and in 7 Eleven coffee comes with “Huhtamaki” plastic lid! Finland was mentioned in the news because of Northern Lights!
  • National parks. Mainly free entrance, very well kept areas, good maps, plenty to see.
  • Public toilets. Always clean and nice, just use! Just the same with public BBQ areas.

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  • Tap water. Drink, it’s fresh and good! If not, it’s mentioned.
  • Credit cards. Everything works out fine, the limit to just “tap” (no need to insert PIN) is 100 AUD.
  • The price level of food in the shops varies a lot, and in our opinion quite randomly. Just check the lowest shelves, and trust on campaigns! Eating out is expensive, check some happy hours. Subway is cheaper than back at home. In 7 Eleven it’s cheap to buy coffee, 1 AUD, otherwise quite expensive.
  • The sun. It’s hot, and even when cloudy, you might end up sun burned. In our opinion the best protection are the sunscreen from “Cancer Council” (http://www.cancer.org.au/preventing-cancer/sun-protection/sun-protection-products/).

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  • The clothes. Don’t take too much clothes with you, they are anyway out of the fashion once you end up into new continent. We updated our gear to Billabong and Roxy in Ashmore Factory Outlets (http://www.ashmoreoutlets.com.au/) which indeed had cheap prices for these brands.
  • Avoid to take any white clothes with you, the washing gets difficult.
  • And finally, our favourite blog of Australia: https://muuttolintu.com/ (in Finnish)

As they say “no worries”, it’s really like that, everything was very easy and smooth for us, and we encourage all the hesitating people just to book the flights to Down Under!

 

Melbourne – Place to be

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The sail from Tasmania with ‘Spirit of Tasmania’ was quite a rough experience. It’s relatively expensive (if you count the ferry and the bus from Hobart to Devonport), time taking and it’s hard to get some sleep without the cabin, just on the cold seat (the budget option). But the worst was the motion sickness from the windy weather. Well, survived!

Marja’s friend (met 11 years ago last time!) Andrew offered us his place to stay over the weekend. That was so nice of him, and we really enjoyed his place, positioned near the sport centrum, beach, tram stop and city. It was also great to see how we haven’t changed too much in 11 years. Before just studying and partying together in Holland as exchange students, now doing more some “adult stuff” with serious working lives etc. But that was the only difference – never get old 😉

Melbourne is great! It’s such a lovely city, absolutely fantastic! The original plan was to drive also the Great Ocean Road, but we left that for the next trip – long driving was anyway ahead soon in New Zealand, and it seemed that there was plenty to see in Melbourne itself.

So, what did we do… We went to a pub in strangest place ever, a hidden gem in a long alley behind garbage bins (http://www.thecroftinstitute.com.au/),

 

…went to a birthday party of Andrew’s friend, and felt so welcomed and ate there kangaroo steak,

…had lovely bbq at Andrew’s rowing club,

… went to Italy (Little Italy).

In the city we were wandering around the streets, and saw for example the Queen’s market. Close by there were few nice pubs with good Happy Hours, a jug of beer for 10 AUD! The main square is Federation Square with St. Paul’s Cathedral.

We visited the Parliament of Victoria (http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/visit) with free guided tour!

The weather was very nice during our stay. They say that in Melbourne, you have all four seasons, and even within one day! And that indeed is the case, one morning freezing, and afternoon burning hot! But we were lucky! We also went for a run to the beach (St. Kilda) and enjoyed the sun.

One day we visited also the Shrine of Remembrance (http://www.shrine.org.au/Home), a war memorial. There is a really good museum of Australian war history, from far past up to the peace keeping operations of today. Even if not interested in war history, it’s definitely worth of a visit, at least because of the view! And the entrance is for free!

We took the city bikes for one day (4 AUD per bike), that is something to recommend!

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Andrew took us to Yarra Valley for the world-class wineries. We had tasting in three wineries, one chocolate factory and one cheese factory. Great area with wonderful views, we should take the ideas of how to market our countryside back to home!

After great times in Melbourne, it was time to change the continent! It’s quite sad feeling, we enjoyed Australia so much. But, time to move on, New Zealand, get ready!

 

Tasmania – runaway from the mainland

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We flew to Tasmania from Cairns, so it was a change from tropical climate to more “normal”. Finally some use for the long sleeve shirts! It’s December, and the summer has started. The weather reminds of ours in Finland in summer time, can be warm (here warmer than in Finland), but can be also rainy.

The whole idea of Tasmania is because of Jarrah, the young orienteer, who stayed in our place to train for Junior World Orienteering Championships to be held next year in Tampere. We got the stay at his family in their big house at Kingston beach, near Hobart.

Hobart is a lovely small city, it has everything you need, and easy to go through by feet. We were lucky to be there on Saturday when the Salamanca market takes place.

In the harbor there was the ship of Sea Shepherds. They organized free tours to their brand new and fast ship, it was interesting to visit them and a bit support their good actions.

Hobart otherwise is just compact and nice with pretty old buildings and lovely parks. We sensed hint of Europe, there were more European products in the shops and somehow the atmosphere and people were just different from the ones we have met in Queensland and in New South Wales. Also, maybe as once found by the Dutch as Van Diemen’s land, there were some Dutch habits, like celebration for Sinterklaas!

Mount Wellington is 1271 m above sea level, and can be reached with a 22 km road from the center of Hobart. The views over the city and surrounding national parks are spectacular. 

Jarrah’s father Jemery was very kind and took us to a trip to Mount Field National park meanwhile Jarrah was learning life saving the whole weekend. We did a very long (compared to our experience) hike (“Tarn Shelf Circuit via Lake Newdegate, Twilight Tarn and Lake webster”) at Mt Field, and the scenery was something we have never seen before. There was a bit of Lapland and Norway in it! The forest changed during the walk, and was just impossible beautiful!

Down at the Mt Field there are the Russell Falls, one of the nicest waterfall we have seen. The whole national park was so lovely with the pretty views and happy people.

We made a two day trip to Freycinet National Park. There we had a walk around The Hazards Mountains to see the famous Wineglass Bay. We were on this trip with Jarrah and his girlfriend Francine, and got to stay in such a nice villa in Coles Bay. So relaxing time in perfect sceneries – without internet! Playing UNO as long as Jukka won (many rounds…).

The whole eastern coast line of Tasmania is said to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world. And it indeed is! We didn’t go too far, but the sceneries we saw were just wonderful! There are lot of beautiful beaches, so many sheep and plenty of wineries. On the way back we took a dirt road “shortcut” to reach Port Arthur. The 4WD was needed! We also saw the animal called echidna (Finnish: nokkasiili) which was grossing the road (again, no photo…).

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In Port Arthur Historic site (http://portarthur.org.au/) you can get the idea how the whole Tasmania basically has begun. The place is such a confusing mixture of natural beauty, and some tragic past. Definitely worth to visit (entrance 38 AUD).

On the way in Tasman National park we saw again great places, unusual geological formations, the Tasman Arch and Devil’s Kitchen, and the formation called Blow Hole. Never seen anything like that!

We didn’t have too much time in Port Arthur (if you go there, reserve at least 3 hours for the site!), as we needed to catch Hobart in time to take part in the local orienteering rehearsal. And yes, in the Queen’s Domain park there was really nice little competition. Marja took the medium track, and spent her time searching for target no 4 (for 8 minutes!!), otherwise she was satisfied. Jarrah naturally won the long distance, Jemery was really fast as well, while Jukka took his time. The results and GPS track are here: https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/ResultList?eventId=3382&groupBy=EventClass. And after all it wasn’t that scary to run in the local forest (it was more like a park), no snakes, no spiders! By the way, the result board was really cute. You get your name and time printed out as a sticker, and you attach the sticker to piece of wooden block and hang it in according to your position.

Our last evening Jemery offered us few great experiences! First, we made vegetarian pizzas with him. How many different things you can combine! Beans, tabasco, nuts… After the lovely pizzas we still went to a park to search for animals in the night. And we saw quite a few: bettong, wallaby, padymelon, possum and a bird tawny frogmouth. That was so great! We would have never gone there on our own (afraid of darks anyway…), and if had, we wouldn’t have noticed the possum in the tree etc.

Our return from this isolated island was with a ferry, Spirit of Tasmania, from Davenport. We needed to catch a bus to reach it, and it took us basically the whole day. The ferry is Finnish made (Kvaerner Masa-Yard), and it reminded us of the ferry we tend to take between Helsinki and Tallinn. No tax free tho.

So, here we come, Melbourne!

Cairns and surroundings – the tropic!

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The most reasonable way to reach Cairns in our opinion is by internal flight. It’s really far up in the north. It’s part of the state of Queensland, but totally different from the southern part. The first thing what hits you is the heath! It’s tropical – day and night!

In Cairns itself there is not that much to see. The highlights would be the swimming lagoon at the beach front. Other thing we liked was a market, mainly for fruits, held on Fri-Sat-Sun. In the center, there is also held night markets from 5 pm every day, there can be found some nice cheap food as well. There were the bat season while we stayed, and near bus station there were few trees packed with bats. Luckily we didn’t watch those with open mouth, as one of those bastards dropped shit on Marja’s shirt.

The botanical garden is also big and pretty, we went to run there one morning.

The thing in Cairns are the tours out from the town. They keep on selling these everywhere, and it’s hard to distinguish the companies from each other, also the prices are pretty much the same.

Our solution to see as much as possible was to rent a car for three days, it was very cheap (our recommendation: East Coast Car Rental, http://www.eastcoastcarrentals.com.au/). Our small Hyundai had very low fuel consumption, so it was really affordable.

We drove first to Atherton Tablelands, to see the lovely scenery with lot of farms. It’s nice drive up with serpentine road. On the way, we stopped to check Cathedral Fig Tree in Danbulla state forest. We found also the platypus animal in Yungaburra Platypus Viewing Area, yes, we saw it (tho no photo available)! Curtain Fig Tree was another impressive old tree on our way.

There were lots of lovely waterfalls too. The nicest were the Millaa Millaa falls.

It was a bit tricky to find a place to stay over in the Tablelands, and we needed to drive back to the coast in darkness, and had a night in lovely Palm Cove. There was also a lovely beach with stinger protection net (safe to swim) and a long pier.

TIP! Search your accommodation before darkness (before 6 pm!), the receptions of campsites close around 6 pm, and in the dark it’s anyway hard to see the signs etc.

We spend one day in supposedly the oldest rain forest of the world, in Daintree forest. It’s easy to drive there, you only need to cross the Daintree river with a little ferry (26 AUD return per car). There are all the national park paths available for free to walk around. Swimming wasn’t possible as there were stingers on the beaches and besides the crocodiles could come from the rivers.

The walks in the forests were relatively short (max 1 hour) and easy, so it was really perfect place to see.

On our way back south from Daintree forests, we stayed one night in a very traditional hotel in Mossman. It looked like a house from Western Films, and it was quite special in all ways… Very cheap tho. Our original plan was to check also Mossman Gorge, but once getting there to the information center, we decided we’ve already seen enough of rain forest and the compulsory bus tour (9.10 AUD) wasn’t appealing to us, we would have liked to rather walk ourselves. We thought it was a bit strange to warn how “the Aboriginals don’t like people walking through their land” and how “the shuttle bus cannot secure they pass walkers safely”…

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The coastline north from Cairns is absolutely magnificent! The nicest spots to stop by are in our opinion Port Douglas and Palm Cove. Photos from Port Douglas.

The highlight and meanwhile also the biggest reason to drop to Cairns was the Great Barrier Reef. We had a day tour there, quite randomly booked via tourist information among dozens of options. In our trip there were way too many people, and it was with very basic services (http://downundercruiseanddive.com.au/evolution_cruise.php). If they have in the leaflet that there is a lunch, they shouldn’t be announcing in every five minutes that “don’t eat too much so that everybody gets some”. The fruits were only for the fast ones, same with the stinger protection suits (strange!). Nevertheless, it wasn’t the main point, they anyway brought us up to almost to the outer reefs. We got to snorkel twice, and especially for the first timer Marja it was such a unique experience, and no words can describe what it was like. Well, you just put your face to the water, and you see a totally different world! The colorful fish, the valleys and mountains of the reef… When you are on the edge of a reef formation, you feel you fly, as the bottom is so far away, but with the clear water it’s no different if it’s water or air. And when you feel some scary looking fish is too close, you just lift your face from the water and you are again in the “normal” world. Absolutely the best ever! Unfortunately we didn’t have any waterproof camera, so the images are in the nature documents and in our heads.

In our last night, we met the first Finnish since Coffs Harbour WRC, Annica and Juuso! It was great to hear from them how it is to stay in Australia for longer period and what it is to work in here too. Great to catch up with you guys and good luck for the rest of the stay!

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Next, we will take another internal flight, and head to Tasmania! Looking forward to the colder climate 🙂