Day Four - Puke to Lake Waimea NZ

Day 4
Woke up really early as would become very normal on this trip. We stopped at a good little place for breakfast and I had an egg, bacon, and cheese pie. We moved on, and went to the Franz Josef glacier. It was awesome! The scenery all the up to the glacier was amazing, striated, rounded rocks, waterfalls everywhere, and the glacier looming in the distance. I got dangerously close to the glacier, near a water cavern. There were rockfalls and snow falling, as well as dripping water all over it. Took a few pics there, got a little worried and moved on. We decided to follow a tour group up the actual glacier itself, instead of just watching it, like the rest of the suckas. It was kinda scary, especially cuz I had a pack on and basically sneakers. The tour group were all wearing spikes. Got up there and it was completely worth it! What an awesome experience! We took off and headed down the coast. There was a great little pulloff for sunset. We saw the Tasman Sea for the first time up close, and right near sunset there was a great spot to watch and photograph it. Part of it looked like the end of the Goonies to me. It was breathtaking, though. After dark, we pressed on a bit, found a spot by a lake to take nighttime long exposures. The moon was full and reflecting off the lake. After that, we found a spot to camp at Lake Waimea. The nightly process has become this: pulling into a campsite, paying, plugging in, charging batteries, dumping picture memory cards, and me falling asleep early as shit. Seriously, I’ve been asleep at 10 at the latest for several days in a row now. I’ve been up at like 6 or 7 though, so I guess that makes up for it.