Straddie, etc.

We have yet to get a cell phone, which will happen in the next day or two! No worries! ;) This weekend we are headed to Noosa Heads. There is a van for sale there that we want to check out. The commute will be substantial but we wanted to go to Noosa Heads anyhow. Plus we Rebecca and Andy are expecting company this weekend. So we have to leave anyhow. I've booked us a couple of beds at the hostel that has free surf boards to borrow. That's what Peter is excited about. I am hoping this is the van for us. There is one more that will be available for us to look at in Brisbane on the 4th of November. How to decide?! One is $4500 which he say's in negotiable and the other is $6000. The cheaper van is in Noosa. It also is old, 1979 Toyota Hiace with 260000km. But from the pictures it looks like it is in good condition. The other is 1984 Mazda E something with 195000 km. So you can see our difficulties in trying to decide what to do. Both are pop up's.
Besides trying to buy a van we have decided to head south instead of north. The reason being that Peter is concerned that the North will be too hot! From what other people have been telling us, the best time to hit Carnes, etc is after March. We have decided to leave Australia at the end of July out of Brisbane. Hopefully we can sell the van easily at that time. I think so.
We enjoyed staying on Straddie. The weather was great, with the day's sunny and the evenings cool. We met some people at the place we were staying which was cool. We had beers with the one bunch and talked about all things Canadian and Australian. As we were leaving we met some older people. They gave us some good suggestions. The guy even offered Peter a job helping him build his house. (Up near Cairns.) Since we didn't have wheels, we hitched our way across the island. This proved to be very easy and quite enjoyable. It was interesting hearing some peoples stories. I must say I could be tempted into hitching more often. (Only with Peter of course.)
We had our first encounter with fish this past weekend. Eating and seeing. I ate fresh fish and chip and Peter had giant calamari. Both were good. We also saw a very large sea turtle and the fins of a pod of dolphins. Apparently there was a great white shark off the coast from where we were swimming. It even made the news. I found out after. There were also some humpback whales, but we didn't see them.
Tomorrow we head too a Koala Sanctuary. Apparently we can hold and feed them. I'm thrilled.
That's all for now. Love you all and am looking forward to talking with you.

P.S. We are looking forward to hearing about the wedding! Rachel I bet it was so good to see your parents! We thought of you all as we were laying on the beach!

P.S.S. We saw pictures of baby Eli Peter. Beautiful name! When was he born? Peter thinks he saw the Brouwer nose on him. Did they make it to the wedding?