Aurora hunting

Photography can be a lot like travelling... hurry, hurry... wait. Hurry, hurry... wait.
And it's also full of paradoxes: you want the (often crappy) weather to provide the drama for your shots, but then you also want the skies to miraculously clear so you can do something like milky way or aurora shots.
We have been waiting all week for the skies to be clear in the evening and tonight was the night. The planning of our guides is meticulous but necessarily fluid... so the 2pm briefing: we will do an afternoon/sunset shoot, then straight to a hurried dinner and then onto the location we hope to see aurora.  We are not going back to the lodge... bring EVERYTHING. That means extra batteries, memory cards, wide angle lenses, head torches, sufficient clothes, hats, gloves and boots to keep warm; hand/glove warmers, crampons (actually micro spikes, to deal with icy roads/rocks). Tissues and cough drops for those of us with the bot. Honestly, it's kind of like when you go out for an afternoon with little kids/babies - the amount of gear required is staggering.
Anyway, long story short, we saw the aurora last night. We were at a beach and thought we'd done pretty well but on returning to the lodge exhausted at about 10.45pm, there she was, right above us  and waaay stronger than at the beach.  The jetty outside our rooms was speckled with ice... but people were running!  And that was that, until at least 12.30. And then a hot drink and hot shower was required to decompress and warm up enough to sleep. It was fun!  The only downside was that there was acres of bright lights in all directions but the aurora was strong enough that it didn't diminish the display. At the beach the moon was a bit of a pain, as were the constant interruptions of people not turning their car headlights off. Don't let me get started on that!
I must admit I was a bit disappointed with my results but that happens.
It's presently 3pm, we've just got back to the lodge from our morning shoot, and have a 90min break before we go do it all again.
So tomorrow, I and 3 others from this group, are leaving here to travel to Tromso (2 flights). That means I have to pack/re-pack probably tomorrow morning as I will be totally knackered by the time we get back tonight. Just trying to manage expectations!

Location Vik.  That bright white dot is not the moon it's Venus.