A good chair and patience is the key for watching the aurora - both in real life and from the couch. Photo / Tiina Salonen
It takes a lot of patience to see the Northern Lights.
It often means multiple flights to remote location and hours of driving across arctic lands in the middle of a freezing night, looking skyward for a glimpse of the green ribbons twiring across the sky.
It is a bucket list experience for many travellers, that is sadly currently inaccessible to the majority of us due to covid-19 travel restrictions around the world.
• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website
But a reindeer-herding family in Finnish Lapland is giving people the opportunity to still witness nature's light show, with an aurora live stream every night from their cottage.
Tiina Salonen is the owner and operator of Aurora Holidays in Utsjoki, a small town in Lapland near the Norwegian-Finland border. She runs the business with her partner Mika, a Sámi reindeer herder.
The last of their winter guests were forced to reschedule until next season, and their spring tour groups have also cancelled, leaving them unsure how long it will be until the next group of travellers are allowed to arrive in this isolated town above the Arctic Circle.
They'd also just built a restaurant for their guests - but aren't able to operate it now all the restaurants have been forced to close. The border river between Finland and Norway is usually a hot spot for salmon fishing, but if the borders remain closed, no fishing licences can be sold.
"We are right next to [the] Norwegian border, so it is not just alone about what Finland decides, but we need to see what Norway does."
In the meantime, they're offering an opportunity to connect with guests around the world via their live stream of the aurora.
Salonen says they've received messages of thanks from those who've tuned in.
"Some of them have said that they cannot travel, so this is a way to watch them almost like in person. Some followers are our former customers who want to keep watching the place they have visited," she told the Herald. "We have got a nice group of people that regularly come to spend time in the chat."
The live stream runs 24/7, but that doesn't mean the aurora is always visible. Salonen says at the moment, the lights can be seen most nights.
"But if the activity gets very strong, unfortunately some of the lights move overhead or to the other side, so that we can not see them in the stream. But here the lights usually move a lot, so it often comes back again and moves around.
"So a good chair and patience is the key."
The aurora season will soon be drawing to an end as the northern hemisphere warms up, but in Lapland that means they experience the midnight sun. Salonen hopes to keep the live stream going so people can experience the summer solstice.
"Many people don't even know about the midnight sun and I am sure it will be interesting for many."
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