On New Year’s Eve 2018, so just a few days ago, I took guests out on a aurora photo tour in hope to find nature’s own fireworks – the Northern lights. I was excited to go out, also because the aurora forecast was good. We didn’t like the cloud forecast and so we agreed to drive far away from Kittilä, the start of our tour.

Fairytale forest

After half an hour, we shortly stopped to check the situation. We were – still – under clear skies and took out the cameras to learn night photography. By pure coincidence we stopped next to a fairytale winter forest, I couldn’t believe it, look at this!

Moonlight fairytale forest
Winter wonderland scene with a bit of aurora

We got wonderful photos of the snow-laden trees and the moon. And then, very weak, but there in the sky it appeared: the Aurora borealis. Seeing the excitement of my guests makes me so so happy, a great start of this long tour. Of course we took photos and after a while we moved on to escape the grey thread of clouds.

Look there is pink!

Somewhere near Muonio we decided to stay nearby and hope to beat those clouds. Once again we found clear skies and it was just in time! The biggest show of that night was just starting and we all went nuts. First the aurora, then my guests and well, the guide too. It was wonderful to see the Northern lights move quickly in the sky and we even saw a hint of pink under the green.

A bit of pink auroras
Very happy guests under the aurora

First auroras of 2018

Once the aurora calmed down (and us) we drove to our final spot. Luck was with us only a short while as clouds did move in. But after seeing the great aurora show earlier, it didn’t matter. So eventually we drove the long way back. Suddenly my guests said, isn’t that aurora there? We quickly stopped and indeed, there she was again. The first auroras of 2018 and without my guests I would have missed them 🙂 What a great end to our tour.

Later that night, an idea hit me for the next New Year’s Eve. I worked two days on this and now the tour page is ready. Check out the 2019 New Year’s Aurora Getaway, it will be very special and even this year just started, I can’t wait for it!

First auroras of 2019