New Year's Eve in snow and ice a world away from the Illawarra's sand and surf

Illawarra man Gary Noble’s short story about growing up in Wollongong was one of 100 included in last year’s Seniors’ Stories. The retiree has spent the past few months travelling and here shares his experience of celebrating New Year’s Eve in Lapland and realising a long-held dream to see the amazing Northern Lights.

In Wollongong, New Year’s Eve can mean packing the kids into the car and heading to Belmore Basin, arriving early to secure the ideal vantage point for the 9 pm fireworks.

The afternoon and early evening are spent relaxing and lounging in the warm sun, counting down the hours to the fireworks.

On the other side of the globe, in Rovaniemi, it is a very different picture.

The city of Rovaniemi sits on the Arctic Circle in Lapland, about an hour’s flight north of the Finnish capital, Helsinki.

The Finns claim it as the “official” home of Santa Claus and thousands flock there each year to visit Santa’s Village.

While December in Wollongong is sun, sand, and surf, in Rovaniemi it is snow, snow, and more snow.

Like scores of others from around the world, I was in Rovaniemi on New Year’s Eve chasing the Northern Lights – Aurora Borealis.

Those magical, coloured lights that dance and swirl across the Northern Hemisphere’s night sky.

Experts predicted the end of 2024 to be one of the best times to glimpse the lights, with the sun’s 11-year cycle of solar activity nearing its peak.

Nature can be finicky, however, and there was no guarantee that the lights would appear.

Each night in the last week of December, cloud cover blocked any chance of seeing them.

In Rovaniemi, the final day of the year began with the sun rising at 11 am – it set at 2 pm – three hours of daylight!

The morning temperatures were around -8C and forecast to fall in the evening. Snow lay everywhere, and like every other day I had been in Rovaniemi, there was total cloud cover.

While people in Wollongong gather around Belmore Basin on New Year’s Eve, in Rovaniemi locals and tourists alike head to the Arctic Snow Hotel.

This unique hotel is built of snow and ice and constructed from scratch each winter. In spring, as temperatures begin to rise, it simply melts away.

Even though New Year’s Eve temperatures dropped close to -20C, people wrapped in layers of clothes and puffer jackets danced and partied the evening away, surrounded by metre-deep snow – a snow-covered wonderland.

In Wollongong, people might have enjoyed the evening drinking cans of beer or glasses of wine.

Here, drinks came as shots to keep the cold out, delivered in glasses made of ice, from a bar made from solid ice.

As the night wore on and the party ramped up, word spread that the Aurora forecasters were predicting that, close to midnight, the Northern Lights might become visible.

As midnight neared, people migrated to the edge of Lake Lehtojarvi, a frozen lake that fronts the Snow Hotel.

Then, like everywhere in the world, the crowd counted down the final 10 seconds of 2024. At midnight, cheers went up, ice glasses clinked, and the fireworks started.

As the fireworks ended and the smoke began to clear, Mother Nature gave everyone her own version of fireworks.

As if scripted for a Hollywood movie, the clouds had disappeared, and the Northern Lights streaked across the sky.

They are not always visible to the naked eye, but on this New Year’s Eve they were. People stood in awe, and cameras and phones pointed to the sky.

The lights challenged the spectacle of the fireworks; it felt like nature wanted to remind us of her own beauty.

I was fortunate to enjoy New Year’s Eve on the other side of the world and to see the Northern Lights.

Nature can be both amazing and inspiring, but even in such a remote place as Rovaniemi, climate change is having its effect.

Canadian scientists writing in Nature Communications claim the Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the world.

They predict that as early as 2060, rain will replace snow as the primary form of precipitation in the Arctic.

In these conditions, animals such as reindeer will find it impossible to eat the lichen or dig for roots.

Even now, some resorts in Rovaniemi, such as the Apukka Resort, have turned to both storing snow and using snow cannons to guarantee the white, snowy landscape guests expect.

These too have an impact on the environment in terms of the water and energy needed and the noise generated.

New Year’s Eve could not be more different between Wollongong and Rovaniemi.

While it is easy to highlight the differences in weather and surroundings, what is the same is the look on people’s faces as they stand with family and friends counting down the final seconds to midnight and then the smiles and hugs that sweep the crowd as clocks strike midnight.

The setting of people’s hopes and aspirations for a fresh new year are universal whether it is in Wollongong or Rovaniemi.