I saw them before I heard them. On the distant horizon a line of tiny black specks appeared in the crystal blue sky. From their classic ‘V’ formation I knew they were Canada Geese. As I watched, thousands more rose from behind the distant treeline that marked the river, broke into smaller flocks, and circled to get their bearings. Wave after wave flew overhead, filling the sky with their dark silhouettes and the air with their strident, guttural honking.

Looking over the tall prairie grasses toward the Goose Lake Prairie visitors center.

It is nearly 4 p.m. and all around me the prairie grasses of Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area are turning to burnished gold in the setting sun. I wonder why the geese have waited until the day’s end to take flight. Do they always travel after dark? Perhaps they fly at night so they can spend the day feeding. And why have they waited until January to head south? This seems late to me. Whatever the reason for their late migration, I am grateful to have been witness to this glorious sight. Read the rest of this entry »

The Kankakee River ice jam is no more. Two days ago the temperature in Illinois soared to a record breaking 60 degrees; this on the heels of weeks of sub-zero temperatures that had frozen the river solid. As  the thermometer climbed, the ice began to melt and crack, piling up in giant slabs that backed up the water and caused flooding upstream. Ice collected in a mountainous heap in front of Dad’s house and by midday the rising water began to push ice onto shore, in the process taking out everything in its path. At 8 p.m., Dad checked the water level and discovered it was over the dock and was rising fast. We held our breaths and prepared to leave if necessary, but by 10 p.m. the water was receding. Dad speculated that the locks downstream had been opened up to relieve the flooding.

Backed up ice pushes into the cove, creating a mini-glacier

By yesterday morning, all the ice on the far side of the island had been swept downstream and the river was again flowing, but the cove in front of Dad’s house still looked like a glacier, with jagged ice stretching from the shore to the island. Soon, the swift currents on the far side of the island began eating away at the ice in the cove. Before long, half the distance between Dad’s dock and the island had opened up. I pulled on boots, bundled up in two coats to keep warm in temperatures that were once again down to freezing, and grabbed my camera. At the shoreline, huge sheets of ice split and fell into the river, crashing into one another like a giant demolition derby. Further out, mini icebergs calved from larger mounds and floated away. The air was filled with crackling and popping that reminded me of Read the rest of this entry »

The town of Franz Josef, like Queenstown, has a love affair with adventure sports. For $350 you can take a flight in a single-engine Cessna to view both the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers, landing on the glacier for a bit of ice hiking in the middle of the flight. You can also do this in a helicopter for slightly less money. Or, if flying is not your thing, for around $225 you can strap talons (metal spikes) onto your shoes and do a half or all-day hike on the glacier, following a most-excellent guide who will carve steps in the ice with a pick axe so you can clamber up the sheer faces of the glacier. You can skydive over the glacier, kayak down the icy rapids spawned by the glacier, or go rock climbing on the walls of the glacier-carved valleys. And on and on, ad infinitum. None of this was for me. Instead, I decided to avail myself of the many hiking trails that the Department of Conservation maintains in and around the glacier.

The previous night I had taken a short trail to the top of Sentinel Hill for a distant view of the glacier, as well as a second ‘End of the Forest’ trail that took me to the edge of the river valley leading to the foot of the glacier. Although the information sign at the trail head indicated that this was also the access to the ‘Foot of the Glacier Trail,’ when I reached the river bank my way was barred by a fence with a sign, warning that only experienced hikers or persons with guides should proceed further. I asked the shuttle driver about this and he explained that the trail had been washed out by flooding in places, but that it was perfectly fine to climb through the fence and hike to the glacier. So I did.

Twin waterfalls on the way to the foot of the Franz Josef glacier

I have seen glaciers before. In Canada I visited the glacier at Jasper National Park, where we were driven onto the ice floe by the bus load and allowed to walk around within a small roped-off area – a hundred people at time slipping and sliding into each other in the freezing cold. But I have never experienced Read the rest of this entry »

New Zealand takes my breath away. Each place I visit is more beautiful than the last. Yesterday morning I left Queenstown on the InterCity bus, bound for the South Island’s remote west coast town of Franz Josef to hike its amazing glacier. The west coast is the last frontier of New Zealand. Although there is an airport at Franz Josef it provides only flightseeing over the glacier or charter service, so the only access to this part of the country is by car or bus.

Let me digress for a moment to say that the bus service in New Zealand is nothing short of spectacular. I have purchased a 20-hour FlexiPass that combines bus service from three companies (InterCity, Newmans and Northland). With a day’s notice I can phone toll-free to reserve a seat on any scheduled bus and the hours required to reach the destination are automatically deducted from my pass. When I run out of hours I can phone them up to “top off the pass,” using my credit card to add more hours. It can even be used on the ferry running between Wellington on the North Island and Picton on the South Island. The cost for 20 hours was $214 New Zealand (about $160 US) and with the exception of my flight from Auckland to Queenstown, I have used it to get to all my destinations.

Hop on-hop off buses in New Zealand

Riding the bus here is nothing like taking a bus in the US. The coaches have comfortable reclining seats, footrests, and huge expanses of sparkling clean windows that are perfect for viewing the spectacular vistas revealed around every corner. Incredibly, the bus drivers (keep in mind that these are regularly scheduled inter-city buses – not tour buses) provide a running commentary along the way, entertaining the passengers with bits of history, local gossip, and explanations for what is passing by our windows. Regular stops are made at Read the rest of this entry »