We had a bit of a lazy morning, watching television while we had late breakfast of caviar and rye bread, washed down with the second pot of coffee for the day.

Our travel plans were still a bit sketchy so just in case we weren't coming back to Äkäslompolo, we packed all our stuff including David’s snowboard and boots and loaded it all into the car. Torsti had left for Rovaniemi so we tidied up the locked the cabin.

The first port of call was at Markus’ house. Maria’s uncle was still away on holiday in Sweden and we needed to get the place ready for his return tomorrow. While Maria sorted out the heating inside the house, David cleared the snow outside.

Back in the car, we took the road around fell noting that it was windy and foggy on the slopes of both ski centres. We continued north east towards another one of Lapland’s ski resorts, Levi, but we weren’t going there to snowboard, or at least that wasn’t the plan. Maria’s dad, Janne, lives there and we were going to see him and Leena for a late lunch/dinner.

After a big portion of lasagne, Janne brought out a birthday cake for Maria. It’s wasn’t her birthday yet, but it is tomorrow.

Our road trip continued to Rovaniemi and we were surprised by the number of buses coming in the opposite direction, but perhaps it was because today, in Finland, is a public holiday and people are travelling home after their Christmas vacation.

We arrived at Katja's in the early evening, but after a day of travelling all we could do was just flop down on sofa to watch television.