From: Damon Fisk To: tiffanyfisk@hotmail.com, todannyboy@hotmail.com, dfisk@nermal.santarosa.edu, erikafisk@altavista.net, sdunne@remedy.com, jfisk@santarosa.edu, christagrenawalt@hotmail.com, mikelynn@webtv.net, jlear@bendcable.com, Joycel@aol.com, mjturner3@aol.com, sugahbutt@hotmail.com, gabriel@pixar.com, sdavis@santarosa.edu, bdavis@santarosa.com, meadie@caymandev.com, ajewell@medibuy.com, sneff@srvusd.k12.ca.us, chris.dunne@janus.com, kdunne@omnisky.com, k.dunne@worldnet.att.net Subject: Whales, dolphins and seals...Oh my!!! Hi Everybody! I've now been in New Zealand for almost three weeks. Sorry that I've been neglecting my e-mail duties, but on October 1st I met a beautiful woman in Auckland, and she's been quite a distraction...Pick your collective jaws up from your keyboards, I am of course referring to my girlfriend, Susie. Sus successfully lobbied her company for a few weeks off AND convinced them to send her on to Sydney for some work (and hopefully, some play). So the Australia portion of my trip is, sadly, over. After 3+ weeks following the east coast from Cairns to Brisbane, I flew to Sydney for 2 weeks of Olympic excitement. I was able to see Men's Triathlon and Baseball (Netherlands v. Cuba), Women's Semi-final Soccer (Norway v. Germany, with Norway the eventual gold medalists) and the last night of Track and Field. With a great deal of luck I managed to eek my way into Stadium Australia for women's 10K, mens 5K, women's javeline and high jump and the men and women's 4 x 400 and 4 x 100 meter relays. It was absolutely outstanding to be there and see all of the great performances. Since I'd run the 4 x 400 relay in high school, it was especially exciting to see that event. (In fact, my high school relay team's best time was only .1 second behind the gold medal time run by the US women's team, including Marion Jones!! I thought that was pretty neat...) I also managed to escape the madness in Sydney for 4 days and took a train trip into the Blue Mountains. The hikes that I took during that side-trip were probably the best I've ever been on. I can't wait to post my pictures on the Net, though I think you should all go there and see it for yourselves. Truly amazing stuff... New Zealand has so far been as spectacular as, but very different from, Australia. I put away my shorts, t-shirts, and Tevas and traded them for thermals, jeans, running shoes, fleece, gore-tex rain jacket and hat. The reward for the wet and cold is GREEN hills and snow-capped mountains, even at sea level. After a few days in Auckland, Sus and I went to Rotorua, the thermal/volcanic and Maori culture center of New Zealand. After soaking in the natural sulpher hot springs at the side of Lake Rotorua, we went to a traditional concert and dinner at the local Maori village. We had a great time and learned a bit of history, music and Maori culture. Leaving Rotorua, we had a classic travel disaster day. The weather was fairly bad and as a result, the train tracks to the south had been washed out. No problem...jump on a bus. Well...not so fast. The bus caught on fire after overheating. After a quick shot of the fire extinguisher, we were off again...in the SAME BUS that had just been aflame!! We finally caught the train, which was waiting in the middle of nowhere for us. Certainly we'd be moving now...Nope, someone pulled the emergency brake and the crew didn't know how to reset it. Oh Boy! Fast-forward a day...Damon and Susie are seated comfortably at a cruising altitude of 30,000 feet over the south island. We'd taken the easy way out and had opted to get to Queenstown in 2 hours instead of four days. :-) Queenstown is a gem of a town set among the Southern Alps of the South Island. It is the "Adrenaline Capital of the World" - bungy-jumping, skydiving, jet boating, parasailing, rock-climbing, mountain biking, etc. Now, anyone who knows me will tell you that I was right at home. Then the words of Susie's father echoed in my head - "Keep both feet on the ground, Susie." OK, Gordon, she kept both of her feet on the ground...Uh, most of the time. We did go jet boating, luging (sledding) and hiking. We had a great time. After Queenstown, we took a tourbus past Mt. Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand, to Christchurch. The views on the trip were undescribable and all of you should come here and see for yourselves. Travelling in New Zealand is extremely easy, the people are super-friendly and the dollar is trading at less than 40 cents - the place is a BARGAIN once you are here. Jeez, I should be working for the Tourism Board... Unfortunately I had to say goodbye to Sus in Christchurch after the fastest two weeks of my life. Christchurch was a really nice city and is the main departure point for the 5 hour trip to Antarctica. The night before Sus left for Australia, we went to a bar where many of scientists from the United States Antarctic Program spend their time before leaving for a 5 month sojourn to the Ice. I tried to talk some of them into smuggling me aboard with them. I want to be the first Fisk to see all 7 continents and I don't know when I'll be this close again. Alas, I think that I would turn into a popsicle with the gear that I have with me. Maybe next time...:-) I'm now in Kaikoura on the northeast side of the South Island. It is known as the marine life capital of New Zealand, if not the world. There are blue, humpback, fin, sei, and sperm whales; hector's, bottlenose, dusky, and common dolphins; and New Zealand fur seals. I went whale-watching this morning at sunrise and we saw three sperm whales - 50 feet long each. Can't wait to post the picture I took of the whale's fluke with the snowy mountains in the background! I'd better run before my money runs out. I do have one more thing though...Those of you that think that all of this vicarious living is without a price have been quite misled. In order for you to keep receiving these reports, you are hereby required...that's right REQUIRED...to send me an e-mail of original creation. It need not be interesting or funny, but must your own work and must be longer that one paragraph in length. If you do not respond, you may be barred from ever receiving Damon's Field Notes ever, ever again. If you are sick of these e-mails or if they are too long and boring, this works out fairly well for you...;-) Much love. Write soon, Damon 23 September Hi Folks! Wow - Where do I begin?!?! I am back in Sydney after 3 weeks on the East Coast. I left Fraser Island and spent two days in the town of Noosa Head and a day in Brisbane before flying into Olympic Central. My time in Noosa Head was much too quick. I found out that there are way too many fun things to do in 3 weeks on the East Coast of Australia - and I only did the top half of it! So I ended up rushing through my last two stops. It's ok, though, because I accomplished my one goal that I had set for myself before leaving Australia - spotting a koala bear in the wild. I went into Noosa Head National Park at 11:00pm armed only with a flashlight and a Mars bar (for me, not the koala.) I walked around aimlessly for hours, turning off my flashlight every now and again and sitting silently waiting for the tell-tale crunching of eucalyptus leaves. Nothing! I'd all but given up when I spotted a lone koala sitting at the top of a tree. Yeah!! I sat and watched him (or her) for about thirty minutes. Really neat, but they sure don't do very much. Just sat there and stared back at me. I loved it! The next day I arrived in Brisbane, just in time to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics. I was in a room with about 50 other people from all over the globe. It was great to watch the parade of atheletes with every person in the room cheering when their country was announced. When the Korean team marched in under a unified flag, a korean girl clapped and cried a bit. Kind of touching and special. I few into Sydney the next morning, the plane flying directly over Homebush Bay, the site of the Olympic Park. I'd planned to be in Sydney in time for the first Olympic triathlon, which for the men's race was the next morning. I showed up early to try and find a nice spot to watch the race for free, since it was on the public streets. I started talking to an Australia woman and her two kids, who were sitting next to me. Turns out she was waiting for her husband and they just happened to have an extra ticket at the starting line!! I happily accepted and we walked down to the seats, which were about 40 feet from the starting pontoon. WOW! I took millions of pictures and cheered for the Americans. (I think I was the only one...) It was a great event and I hope it looked great on TV. The location was spectacular - starting from the Opera House - into Sydney Harbor, then around the Royal Botanical Gardens to the finish. I picked up a cheap ticket to the Netherlands v. Cuba baseball game. The Netherlands beat Cuba 4-1 for their first loss in Olympic competition. Tomorrow I'm going to the women's semifinal football (er...soccer) game at the Olympic stadium. Should be great, though I don't know who'll be playing as the semifinalists are determined tonight. The town of Sydney is CRAZY. I love it! There are people dressed up in their national colors, faces and hair painted, wrapped in their flag. When I'm not at an event, I've been hanging out at several parks and town squares where they're broadcasting the Games live. Just me and 40,000 of my best friends cheering like mad. I've met people from all over the place. It is great. The Australians are such great sports fans, they cheer for everyone who wins, Aussie or not. (Though they all loose their minds when Australia wins anything.) Today, I went to famous Bondi Beach to chech out the beach volleyball tournament. All of the tickets were sold out, so I rented a surfboard and surfed (i.e. paddled and fell a lot)all day 100 feet from the volleyball stadium. What a day! I am tired and brown and happy. Much love. Keep the e-mails coming! Damon Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 04:23:57 PDT From: Damon Fisk To: tiffanyfisk@hotmail.com, todannyboy@hotmail.com, dfisk@nermal.santarosa.edu, erikafisk@altavista.net, sdunne@remedy.com, jfisk@santarosa.edu, christagrenawalt@hotmail.com, mikelynn@webtv.net, jlear@bendcable.com, Joycel@aol.com, mjturner3@aol.com, sugahbutt@hotmail.com, gabriel@pixar.com, sdavis@santarosa.edu, bdavis@santarosa.com Subject: Fun in the sun WOW - WOW - WOW!!! Hi Everybody! I'm in Hervey Bay, Queensland after a 3-day 4x4 camping adventure on Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. What an amazing time! Myself and 8 others from England, Ireland and Germany smooshed into a Land Cruiser with loads of food and camping gear. We were ferried over to the island and dropped in the middle of nowhere to fend for ourselves. All of the inland roads are deep sand and we were required to use four-wheel drive and deflated tires the entire trip. The major "highway" is the beach and you have to time the driving to coincide with low tide or you can get stranded or worse, flooded by waves. We drove all over the island, which is about 70-80 miles long and 25 miles wide. It was created over 1 million years ago by drifting sand from the south, pushed by Antarctic winds. The flora and fauna was truely amazing...Dingos, goanas (huge monitor lizards) and humpback whales off of the coast, and the most amazing thing - the island is surrounded by tiger sharks! The beaches are beautiful, but there is NO ONE swimming. We went for a nice hike out to a cliff overlooking the ocean, looked down to see 5-6 10+ foot tiger sharks feeding on schools of fish. We watched them swim and feed for a few hours. We also saw monsterous manta rays and breaching whales from the same vista point. The island also has about 10 crystal-clear freshwater lakes. They were incredibly beautiful, set in among the dunes. I was covered head-to-toes in sand for the length of the trip! Before Fraser Island, I spent 4 days in the Whitsunday Island group. There are about 75 islands in the group, just off the coast from Airlie Beach. I spent a day in Airlie Beach before leaving for a great 3 day, 2 night solo camping trip on tiny South Molle Island. I got a camping permit from the Queensland National Park Service for $2/night, jumped on a ferry, and hiked to a very nice coral beach. I am not travelling with a tent or sleeping pad or ground cloth, so I was out in the open with just my sleeping bag. There were 3 (yes - three) other people on the beach with me. Truly amazing! The flora and fauna was truely amazing...Dingos, goanas (huge monitor lizards) and humpback whales off of the coast, and the most amazing thing - the island is surrounded by tiger sharks! The beaches are beautiful, but there is NO ONE swimming. We went for a nice hike out to a cliff overlooking the ocean, looked down to see 5-6 10+ foot tiger sharks feeding on schools of fish. We watched them swim and feed for a few hours. We also saw monsterous manta rays and breaching whales from the same vista point. The island also has about 10 crystal-clear freshwater lakes. They were incredibly beautiful, set in among the dunes. I was covered head-to-toes in sand for the length of the trip! Before Fraser Island, I spent 4 days in the Whitsunday Island group. There are about 75 islands in the group, just off the coast from Airlie Beach. I spent a day in Airlie Beach before leaving for a great 3 day, 2 night solo camping trip on tiny South Molle Island. I got a camping permit from the Queensland National Park Service for $2/night, jumped on a ferry, and hiked to a very nice coral beach. I am not travelling with a tent or sleeping pad or ground cloth, so I was out in the open with just my sleeping bag. There were 3 (yes - three) other people on the beach with me. Truly amazing! There were gold-crested cockatoos (not macaws as I'd written in another e-mail) and beautiful green, orange, and blue lorakeets. I also saw kookaburas, which sound exactly like monkeys. I had a really nice time camping - great weather, nice hiking trails and NATURE, NATURE, NATURE!! I have seen the sunrise for the last 6 days in a row over the Whitsunday Group and Fraser Island. Stunning...early mornings, hiking, swimming, animal watching. Boy, do I sleep soundly every night! Tomorrow I wake up at 4:45am for a train to Noosa, where I'll hopefully do a little surfing and koala-spotting at Noosa Head National Park. Yippee! I'll be in Sydney on the 16th, just in time for the first Olympic triathlon - watch for me on TV!!! I just heard from a friend/coworker of Susie's at Remedy - Australia. He invited me to stay with him in Sydney for the Olympic fortnight and HAS AN EXTRA TICKET TO TRACK AND FIELD ON THE 28TH WHICH HE'S GIVING ME!!! WOW - WOW - WOW!!! Please sent e-mails if you have a moment. Having a wonderful time (I'm sure you can tell by the number of exclamation points in my e-mails :-)) Much love. Damon Date: Sun, 03 Sep 2000 18:45:04 PDT From: Damon Fisk To: tiffanyfisk@hotmail.com, todannyboy@hotmail.com, dfisk@nermal.santarosa.edu, erikafisk@altavista.net, sdunne@remedy.com, jfisk@santarosa.edu, christagrenawalt@hotmail.com, mikelynn@webtv.net, jlear@bendcable.com, Joycel@aol.com, mjturner3@aol.com, sugahbutt@hotmail.com, gabriel@pixar.com Subject: Down the coast... Hi Everybody! Things are just getting better and better here in Australia. I ended a week in Cairns with an amazing scuba dive of the Great Barrier Reef (Breaking Patches, Norman and Hastings Reef for those with access to REALLY good maps :-)). The condition were once-in-a-year perfect. Water 26 C / 83ish F, air 31 C /87 F, not a hint of wind. The water was flat as a table. The skipper of the boat was even amazed... At the bottom, my dive group was joined by a HUGE Mauri Wrasse. It was frighteningly big - about 4-5 feet long - especially when it came up and gave my mask a big kiss. There is another cod that is a resident of the area that is known as The VW, because it is roughly the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. Think about that next time you get into your car, Joyce! We did not see him, but the Mauri Wrasse, named Wally, followed us around for our entire 45 minute dive. The coral was beautiful (plate, staghorn and fan coral, mostly.) Another dive group spotted a bunch of small white-tipped reef sharks. We didn't see any, but my head sure was on a swivel making sure we weren't being followed! On Saturday, I jumped on a train down the East coast. I am now on Magnetic Island, just off the coast from Townsville, the sugar cane capital of North Queensland. The island is wonderful. I walked my tail off yesterday. There is a walking track that crosses the island and took me through a World War II fort, which is now the home to about 5,000 koala bears. Somehow I managed to miss all 5,000 of them. Since they are nocturnal, I think they were all snoozing deep in the eucalyptus forest. I ended up on a beautiful secluded beach with about 5 other people - pretty rough life! My hostel is this amazing place run by a very nice couple who have been on the island for 14 years. There are animals all over the place that have taken up residence along with the backpackers. There is a possum that lives on the porch and eats cookies and dog biscuits. It is not an ugly North American possum, but looks more like a small monkey. Geckos cover the walls and three foot-tall birds stroll around the patio. It is great! (and cost $10us a night!) I bet my cousin Jordan would LOVE this place...creatures everywhere. I leave for Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands later this afternoon. The Islands are supposed to have some of the most beautiful beaches in Australia. I can't imagine that it gets much better than what I've already seen. I guess I'll have to go see for myself...:-) Thanks for all of the great e-mails. Keep them coming. Much love, Damon Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 18:05:34 PDT From: Damon Fisk To: tiffanyfisk@hotmail.com, todannyboy@hotmail.com, dfisk@nermal.santarosa.edu, erikafisk@altavista.net, sdunne@remedy.com, jfisk@santarosa.edu, christagrenawalt@hotmail.com, mikelynn@webtv.net, jlear@bendcable.com Subject: Diving Down Under Greetings from Queensland! I've been here in Cairns, QLD for the past 3 days. It is a great tropical town where the rainforest meets the reef. Both the local rainforests and the Great Barrier Reef are listed as World Heritage sites by the United Nations. I had a GREAT day yesterday out on the reef. It is actually about 35 miles from Cairns. It is actually closer to shore here than most other towns on the coast. I want out with a group of about 35 others on a large yacht. I had planned on SCUBA diving, but got yanked off the diving crew at the last minute by the ship's doctor. Seems that the scar at the bottom of my lung from pneumonia worried him a bit. Jerry, mom and dad - what do you think? The scarring is almost 10 years old and I was SCUBA certified after I had pneumonia. It has never given me any problems diving. I was honest on my medical exam report yesterday, so they knew of the condition, should I be so honest next time? I ended up snorkeling instead, which was really wonderful. Probably a good way to start out exploring the reef anyway. I was only disappointed when the divers returned and said that they'd seen a white-tipped reef shark. The snorkeling was so wonderful, I didn't mind not diving. So much to see and do. HUGE fish and colorful reef. Hard to describe - you all must see it for yourselves:-) Tomorrow I'm going on a two day rainforest overnighter into saltwater crocodile country - Cape Tribulation where Captain Cook ran aground on the reef. Hope everyone is well. Thanks for all the email. Keep it coming. Much love, Damon P.S. Could someone please forward Tanya's, the Leibbrandt's and the Turner's e-mail addresses to me. Thanks. D Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2000 18:22:43 PDT From: Damon Fisk To: tiffanyfisk@hotmail.com, todannyboy@hotmail.com, dfisk@nermal.santarosa.edu, erikafisk@altavista.net, sdunne@remedy.com, jfisk@santarosa.edu, christagrenawalt@hotmail.com, mikelynn@webtv.net Subject: G'Day from Sydney Hi Everybody! I arrived here in Sydney on Friday. I left SFO at 11:30pm on Wednesday the 23rd and arrived here at 6:30 am on the 25th. Strange to lose an entire day just by crossing the International Date Line. I will get that day back when I return on November 6th. I actually arrive in San Francisco BEFORE my departure time from Auckland, New Zealand. Sydney is WONDERFUL! It is actually a bit warmer than San Francisco, even though it is winter here. I've been staying at the Sydney Central Youth Hostel. It is a great place right in the middle of Sydney, located across the street from the Central Transit Station. After catching a bus from the airport and dropping off my pack, I was walked down to the Harbor. Nothing like a beautiful sunrise over the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge to welcome me to Australia! I've spent the last two days walking all over Sydney. It is a beautiful city and appears ready for the Olympics in 19 days. I'm now on my way to Cairns in Queensland. (It is at the North end of the East Coast.) I'll be there for a week or so scuba diving and exploring before taking a train to Brisbane. From Brisbane, I'll fly back to Sydney for the Olympics on the 17th of September. On October 1st, I'm flying to Auckland for a month in New Zealand. I'll be checking my e-mail whenever I can from the road.