Honningsvag

There were a couple of calls through the night re the Lights but having finally warmed up, I elected to stay in bed and hope for more sightings at more respectable hours. Through the night had a nose bleed that was totally out of the blue. Then because I couldn’t breathe through my nose, had to breathe through my mouth which then made my mouth exceptionally dry and consequently couldn’t sleep. I am most definitely not a mouth-breather! Anyway, SB and I were both wide awake very early, so SB went and got our ritual morning cuppa and We eased ourselves into the morning.
As it is Australia Day today we needed to celebrate it in style. We already had little Australia flags stuck by our cabin doors since arrival onboard, courtesy of SB. She was very well organised and had brought a blow up kangaroo and bandana for use on Oz Day. Watching her blow up the kangaroo was a sight too funny for words. There was no way I could take a photo as I couldn’t keep the camera still from laughing. Every few breaths, SB would throw herself back on her bed, feet in the air in an affront to restore blood flow to her brain! Through fits of laughter I told her that I was really surprised she didn’t have better lung capacity, being the Nordic expedition hiker that she was. Apparently she was thinking the exact same thing!!! Anyway, eventually said ugly looking kangaroo, which by the way had the valve on the kangaroos bum, was inflated sufficiently. SB then snuck down to cabin 470, placed Kanga in front of the door, knocked on the door and hit footed it back to our cabin 462, with me as the getaway door opener for her.
A few moments later I peeked out our door to see that Kanga was no longer in the hallway so either he had bounded away or had made his way into cabin 470.
SB and I then eventually made our way to breakfast where Foggy was already there. He couldn’t get over how quickly SB had made her escape from the hall, to which SB and I replied that she has wings on her feet. Next thing we know, Captn D comes into the dining room with Kanga. We could hear her laughing before we even saw her! So Kanga and Beltie enjoyed a hearty breakfast with us, much to the amusement and amazement of both staff and passengers.

We have never had so many of the waiting staff come to our table to clear our plates. They all wanted to meet Kanga and Beltie. One of the lasses even came back with her phone to take photos, bless her. I had every intention of photographing the Butinskys at breakfast as I knew that would head straight for the table alongside us to eavesdrop, but would you believe it, Marg, a grad mother from Adelaide and Amy her 18 year old grand daughter from Esperance came and sat at that table. Marg wanted to offer us some of her aVegemite that she especially brought with her for Australia Day, not realising that we’d been using my jar of Vegemite all week. But not to be out manoeuvred, when the Butinskys arrived, they simply sat next to Marg and Amy. My photo pop came when we were leaving breakfast, when Captn D asked the ship’s captain if he would kindly have his photo taken with Kanga for Australia Day. He obliged and as you may be able to pick out in the photo, as soon as I brought my camera out, Mrs Butinsky has gone to move her chair so that she can better face the camera. Mr B is all ready and primed to photo bomb.

Breakfast over and time to head back to our cabin for a while. Hard to believe that our cruise is coming to an end and that this is our last full day on board. I have received my certificate to prove I crossed the Arctic Circle and I’ve seen the Northern Lights. No doubt there are still great things to come from this holiday.

We are headed for Honningsvale which is the nearest point to the North Cape, only 2,000 kilometres from the geographical a North Pole. Most from our group are doing the optional North Capetour, but the four musketeers plus another two have opted not to do it, so will be going for a walk around the town on our own. ( The Butinskys are doing the tour and we’re disappointed we weren’t joining them.)
We arrive at our destination at 11.15 and consider ourselves very lucky when Kelli kindly offers to show us through the small village. There are about 2,700 residents and fishing is the key industry. There are hardly any other people out and about in th3 streets so we really feel like we have the place to ourselves, although there are a few cars passing by us. It is such a pretty place with everyth8ng covered in snow. As there is no wind, it really doesn’t feel cold at all, but I’m well rugged up regardless.

We see a number of Finnish sleds around the place. They are the equivalent of walkers that elderly back home to get around. The oldies can put their groceries in bags on the seat part and walk behind, pushing the sled, or if they are really lucky, someone might push them on it. Small children can sit on it and be pushed in lieu of a pram. A number of them were sitting outside shops while their owners were inside shopping.

Kelli and SB decide to do an alternative to being snow angels and think it would be fun to plunge their face in the snow to see if it leaves a perfect imprint. The look on SB’s face when she got up from the snow was sufficient for me not to follow suit. mind you, you are meant to kneel down and then slowly put your face into the snow. Shiny Bright simply fell forward into the snow so maybe her experience was a bit more extreme than necessary.

We wander about for an hour and then head back to the ship for lunch and as soon as lunch is finished SB and I head out to do a tiny bit of shopping at the bottle shop and souvenir one. Back on board the ship. Last minute shopping at the ships’s shop And then back to our cabin to pack our suitcases. We are both very good at avoidance, so SB goes and gets us both a cup of tea, I work on the blog, SB deflates Kanga and then realizes he will need to make an appearance later tonight so then blows it up again. I fall off my bed laughing and still not a thing has been packed. In fact we haven’t even gotten our suitcases out and open as yet...

Okay, suitcases packed but not closed. At 5pm we head to the 8th floor lounge room where our group of 22 and Kelli have arranged to meet for our own little Australia Day Celebration and a farewell drink to our last night on the ship. SB and I wore flashing light glasses and headband as we were our Aussie version of the Lights! Then off to dinner where it was a seafood buffet. Gee whiz, those Japanese love their seafood. Don’t try and get in the way of them and a crab claw... It was a very pleasant dinner and Mr Butinsky only butted in once during our meal.

Back to our room and final packing and closing of suitcases. I just get into my jammies and a call comes out that the Lights are showing on the port side from the top deck. So, unlock the suitcase and on go the snow pants and parka over the jammies, shove on my leather boots sans Sox and I head to see the Lights. Not nearly as good a showing as last night but still pretty amazing. Back down to the cabin, disrobe, repack suitcase ready to put it out near the lifts for collection over night. Time to update the blog, but here’s fair warning that I may not be able to rely on such good internet connection once I leave the ship, so we will just have to play it by ear from here on.