South Island of New Zealand - Land of the long white cloud

Sorry to take so long with the captions!!

Bill and I had the best time in New Zealand - it is just absolutely stunning!! We spent 8 days on the South Island and 4 days on the North Island. We had such a great time seeing the sights and meeting heaps of new and interesting people!!
We set the timer on the camera and put it on the car - so it is a little bit slanted!! Sorry!! One of my favourite things about New Zealand was this crystally-blue water near Mt Cook. It is hard to tell here, but the water is full of minerals from the glaciers which causes it to appear almost opaque. It was truly wonderful to see!
This is a photo of Bill and I white water rafting the Shotover near Arrowtown/Queenstown. The water was VERY cold, but soo clear - I actually felt safe drinking it!! :) We had a great time rafting and made some new friends! (Side note - look at our funny guide - he's covering his eyes! He liked to consider himself an 'Eco-Sexual!' I about died - He was so funny!)
This is us at the Fox Glacier. We actually crossed ropes saying that we should not walk any further, we just couldn't resist! I really wanted to touch it! It was just starting to rain this day and was pretty cold, but luckily we touched it before the real rain started! Down at the ground level, the glacier actually looked quite dirty, but up in the mountains it was a beautiful ice blue colour. The creepiest thing about the glacier was that it was creaking! It made noises that made me so nervous... I thought it was going to collapse at any given second! I actually think I was starting to run away in this picture! ;) It was a neat experience though - one we are grateful to still be around to tell! ;) haha
This is the beautiful Mitre Peak of Milford Sound. Bill and I took a day cruise at Milford Sound and it was just stunning! It rains 200 days a year, so we were lucky to have clear skies! I have so many beautiful photos from this day - too many to post here! If you want to see more, just let me know!! The end the great day, dolphins (my new favourite!) started swimming with the boat. They were gorgeous!
This is one of my favourite pictures from the South Island. I just love the contrast in colours - how the gold meets the blue of the far off mountains. We pulled over to take this picture... we were pulling over ALL THE TIME to take pics. That pretty much sums up New Zealand... every where you go there are beautiful things to see! We saw rainforests, waterfalls, paddocks full of sheep, deer farms, crystal blue water lakes, amazing snow-capped mountains... the list goes on! We definitely recommend going to New Zealand if you get the chance!!