Just back in from North Stradbroke Island, which is directly east of Brisbane.
It's a beautiful little island where frequented by Auzzies during their summer months. It's still spring so we were able to find a camping spot close to the beach.
For mike and I we took our second surfing lesson, and the girls had their first (even though our instructor turned out....wasn't an instructor and wasn't actually legally able to teach...) surf lesson. Water was crazy, sun was hot, and we got up a few times. After that we watched the Melbourne cup (thought it was a rugby game...turned out it was a national holiday where the entire country shuts down for a 5 minute horse race....and then everyone gets drunk.) But we only had one beer and went sandboarding. Basically snowboarding on a huge sand mountain. Same "instructor", he turned out to be a ex pro surfer who "rode the circuit in the late '90s". Pretty cool guy.
We just dropped off Mandy, she'll tour south looking for work while the rest of us continue north to Cairns (another 1600km). If the van makes it we'll skydive/snorkel along the way.