Getting Ready to Leave

Oh the trials and tribulations of getting ready to leave for 3 months. We've spent the last week or so getting everything organized for our trip. If you haven't heard by now, Liz had a slight mishap on her bike Thursday after our wedding.... to the tune of her getting hit by a car. An ambulance ride and a long night in the ER with a full CAT scan of her back proved that she just had a very sore butt (what a pain in the ass;) - so long story short - she's ok - we're dealing with some legal issues that I won't go into here - but hopefully it will all be sorted out upon our return... not quite what we wanted to be dealing with just prior to our trip!

So thanks to all of you again for making the trip out here - we loved having everyone here and we're still basking in the afterglow of having such a loving group here to celebrate with us!!!

So Fiji has proven to be a bit more taxing than we thought it would be - we were initially going to simply book the first week or so and then wing it from there - but as it turns out - it's peak season and the places we're going only have 4-10 beds per island... so here's our itinerary as it stands:

http://www.fiji-dive.com/ this is the dive company we’re learning to dive with during the first week. We'll be certified then to dive for the rest of the trip.

Boat to Nabua

10-16th Nabua
http://www.fiji.hotel-pictures.com/offshore-islands/nabua-lodge/index.html

Scuba lessons start the 12^th. We lose the entire 9^th to travel because of the date line.

Hike from Nabua to Oarsman
17-19th at Oarsman
http://www.oarsmansbay.com/
Oarsman is quite expensive… so we’re only staying there a short time. The beach here is supposed to be the nicest amongst all of the islands of Fiji.

Boat to Manta Ray
20,21 at Manta Ray
http://www.mantarayisland.com/
Manta Ray is known for its dives with the Manta Rays… also expensive so we’re only there a short time.

Boat to Sunset
22-25th at Sunset
http://www.fiji.islands-resorts.com/resorts_ex.cfm?Memberid=377
We’re staying here for a while – it’s going to be nice – it came highly recommended by Carson and it’ll have great hikes and snorkeling at our front door. It sits on a spit of land so both sunrise and sunset are visible over the ocean... and during low tide the spit becomes a bridge that we can hike to the next resort...

Hike to WayaLaiLai
26,27th at WayaLaiLai
http://www.bcdi.ca/wayalailai/
This one is supposed to be great too – and will be our last two nights on the Yasawas in Fiji.

28th in Nadi so that we can catch our flight to Australia the next day.

So far the plan is to rent a car in Melbourne and drive to Sydney over the course of 5-6 days. We'll see.

Love you all!!! Hope you all are doing well!

Mark and Liz