We only have 4 days left until we need to leave Lapland behind and start our long journey back to New Zealand. Before heading south though, we needed to head north again and collect all our stuff from the cottage in Venejärvi. When we left New Zealand we packed for the Arctic as well as the tropical & cold climates of Latin America. We didn't carry everything for the entire year either though, some stuff was left in Lapland, some stuff was posted back mid trip and we collected more en-route too. We’ve been travelling around Lapland with only a small holdall each and the rest of our stuff has been kept in the cottage.

It was an uneventful drive north, the roads were snowy but the traffic was light. It took a little over 2 hours to reach Sieppijärvi and we stopped in by Maria’s grandma’s house but Mummu wasn’t home. We drove another 20 minutes off the main road and deeper into the forest to Venejärvi.

Farmor was home and so was Markus, Maria’s uncle. After saying 'hello’, we dropped our bags in the cottage, put the car in the garage and went back down to the main house for some dinner.

After dinner, Markus went to make the wood fired sauna ready while we cleared the snow around the cottage. It doesn’t take long for the snow to build up, even when it doesn’t actually snow, the slightest bit of wind will still blow the snow around.

We moved what seemed like a ton of snow and the sauna was a welcome relief afterwards even if it was a bit on the hot side. A second freezing cold beer and standing outside in the minus 20c cold afterwards for a minute or two longer than usual and we were soon back to normal.