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I awoke early that morning for the first highlight of the trip, the Ice Breaker tour. An expensive outing (≈$550), the tour began with everyone suiting up in specially provided clothes for the snow mobiles. It turned out that the clothes weren’t just to keep us warm, but to keep our own clothes from stinking like petroleum. The first part of the trip was a snow mobile ride out on the icy plains for about 3 hours. The original plan of driving out to the ship in the middle of the frozen ocean had to be cancelled, as the late-onset winter meant that the ice was not yet thick enough for this. Instead we drove around the area outside of Kemi. I thought this would detract from the adventure, given I’d heard it was quite a spectacular thing to do, but wasn’t that bad. In the group was a middle-aged couple from Germany, and two young Italian girls. The snow mobiles were a lot of fun, although we lost an hour at the start as three of the vehicles died in succession. Unlike the snow mobiles I would later ride in Svalbard, these were cheap, old looking craft, and I wasn’t surprised that they were breaking down.

After driving along the plains for an hour we headed to the woods, where we stopped at a small hut inhabited by a local Sami. The man was a reindeer herder, and we each got a turn being pulled around on a sled by a reindeer. We then went inside the native hut and enjoyed some traditional Sami food, reindeer fillet on bread and warm lingonberry juice. While it may seem like the murder of a childhood fairytale, reindeer husbandry is a fundamental part of Sami culture. The animals are not endangered, and provide skin, bone, and food for trading and consumption. Sami huts are very much like the Native American teepee. We warmed ourselves by the fire for a while, drinking and eating, after which we left and made our way to the harbour to board the Ice Breaker ship.

The only commercial kind in the world (supposedly), its original function was to break up the ice in the shipping channels. It was a huge solidly built craft, as you could imagine. By the time we boarded and the ship had departed it was time for lunch. There were many more people on the Icebreaker ship, approximately 100. I was served mashed potato and with strips of reindeer.

After a couple hours of breaking through the ice the ship came to a stop. The guests then suited up in special water proof cold suits for a dip in the frozen ocean. The suits were enormous, and contained a huge pocket of air which acted as an insulator. I had an absolute blast swimming around, the suit kept me warm while acting as a flotation device. I swam around effortlessly, much like you would in a swimming pool. I think being Australian, and thus well accustomed to such things, I had an easier time of it than some. Being the last of the guests to suit up, I was able to take my time, and swam around for about 10 to 15 minutes. This was undoubtedly my favourite part of the trip so far. Being such a memorable experience, I decided to buy an Icebreaker vest as a souvenir of the overpriced, but unforgettable day.

We hopped back on board and headed home. When we arrived at the harbour we jumped on the snow mobiles once more and drove back to Kemi, the journey taking just over an hour. On the way we stopped to make snow angels in the snow; something I’d never done before, despite having been in the snow numerous times before. By the time we got back to Kemi it was already quite dark. Tired, we all headed back to get changed into our original clothes where we were given a few certificates. One day I would very much love to try ice-swimming again.

Sami reindeer herder and me

Icebreaker ship

Broken ice trail

Ice swimming. That's me in the middle of the photo, further from the camera