LET THERE BE LIGHT

Aussies and Finns have much in common, and making the trip to discover this amazing part of the world can be a magical, eye-opening experience

SELINA DAY

We’re not so different, Aussies and Finns. We may reach for the aircon control in 30C heat, while Finns need heating in -30C, but we share a humour, and a bond with family and friends that seems to say: “If your life depends on me, you’ll be just fine”.

Aussies keep our word, just like the Finns.

It was on the promise to a Finnish mate that a group of Aussies, as well as a few Belgian friends, visited Finland. We wanted to experience the northern lights.

“Don’t go to Finland,” a Norwegian friend joked. “All you’ll see is trees.”

She was right. I think we managed to see all of the alleged 77 billion of them during our stay, but who’s counting? We were more focused on the sky. As aurora-watchers well know, there’s never a guarantee the Tricky Lady will come out to play.

But she did — and she was splendid.

Four nights in six she swirled and danced and draped herself high across the sky as we watched, transfixed; sometimes from outside while we shivered beyond words, sometimes from the warmth and comfort of our igloo.

Our journey, which took us to Levi and Rovaniemi in the country’s north, the central city of Oulu and Helsinki in the south, was born of a profound sadness.

More than a year earlier, a Finnish friend, journalist Antti Tiri from news agency STT, had died unexpectedly in Sydney.

His death at 36 from an undiagnosed brain tumour threw his grieving friends and colleagues into each other’s arms as we struggled to comprehend the loss of such a beautiful, young man.

We spoke with Antti’s family, across time zones and languages, to try to help where we could. And we bonded. A bunch of almost a dozen Finns, Aussies and Belgians.

Then came the promise. We will all meet again in Finland.

First stop Levi, Finland’s largest ski resort in Lapland and north of the Arctic Circle, where for a week we stay in rustic log cabins and glass igloos, designed for viewing the aurora borealis.

We marvel at the ancient rocks, quietly running streams and dramatic wilderness of Levi Fell. It feels as though this place hasn’t been touched for centuries.

It is on these hikes we learn how Finns inherently understand survival. They show us how to identify berries on the forest floor: Cloudberries, lingonberries, crowberries, cranberries, juniper berries and, our favourite, wild blueberries. In wooden huts known as kotas, we cook up reindeer sausages and salmon.

With Christmas still weeks away, and Santa’s official hometown of Rovaniemi just hours by road, we make a date with the guy.

But ‘the Real Santa’ is hard to pinpoint; there is more than one. And he can be expensive. A photo with him can set you back about 25 euros ($A35), while the novelty of

“IT FEELS AS THOUGH THIS PLACE HASN’T BEEN TOUCHED FOR CENTURIES”