As always, the aurora only shows itself with plenty of luck. I was in Tromsø (Norway), and the forecast had been terrible all week - rain, cold, frost, endless clouds. This particular night I had no hope of seeing anything at all, as the sky was thickly overcast. Some hostel mates invited me to walk to the nearby beach, in the off chance something was happening. I didn’t even bring my camera with me, I was so convinced there was nothing there.
It is good to be wrong.
After a bit of adjusting to the darkness, there was a break in the clouds and we noticed something faint moving softly near the opposite shore. I turned and ran all the way to the hostel and back with camera and tripod in tow, and parked up on the stoney beach. Swaying into many shapes and abstracts throughout the night, eventually the aurora crept across the water, skipped up the bank, and twirled into a fascinating spiral, a koru. I stayed for hours in the cold, and this was my favourite moment. A soft reminder of home.
