Quick FYI

Since it's been six days I thought that I should let anyone who's still paying attention know that we're alive. We made it to Brisbane just fine. My friend Caroline and her boyfriend Ambor were able to pick us up, which was great. We had a very brief visit and were able to spend the night saving us money and another hostel - THANK YOU!

The next morning we took the train to a bus to a ferry to a bus on North Stradbroke Island. Our hostel was on a beautiful beach and we enjoyed the waves, sand and sunshine...I also enjoyed a monster nap. Too bad when I woke up to go and eat I stepped on what we now think was a jellyfish (didn't see it though the beach was later covered in them) and has taken about five days to recover from completely. I literally thought that my toe was going to rocket off at first. Between that and some mosquito bites I had a rough sleep or two but otherwise everything was good. We walked the next day around the gorge spotting surfers, manta rays, turtles, and a bunch of dolphins - a cool but unexpected highlight! We found it quite beautiful and it was a great way to spend a couple of days. We returned to Brisbane and stayed two nights there, walking, looking for places to live in Victoria, watching movies, and spending some time with my other friend, Matt, who proved to be a good tour guide.

Yesterday we got our 3rd and final rental car "Ponyboy" a Ford Falcon station wagon with beauty written all over it. We did NOT get lost on the way out of the city but were practically stopped for 1/2 hour for some roadwork. We spent the day at the Australia Zoo yesterday, home and brainchild of Steve Erwin, better known as the Crocodile Hunter. It was a pretty good zoo focussed on conservation. We got to pet koalas, kangaroos, and I fed an elephant.

Last night we found a beach town and slept in the parking lot (with a few other VW vans and other ugly station wagons). This morning we hit the beach waves which were the biggest I've ever played in and now we're on our way North, to we're not sure where yet. We're still trying to book a scuba dive in Australia, not sure what will come of that. Until soon.