We were given a price for a car by the nice lady at National car hire so we thought we'd have a look at what she was offering ... Monster truck comes to mind!! Anyway "my friend" Ebdi took over and we got a nice Toyota  at his special rate.
We set off, dad gave me the keys to drive but I think he forgot the driver sits on the other side out here because he drove from the passenger seat. I couldn't get the GPS to work so we pulled over for a moment and Dad worked his magic on it.
Driving through Vancouver was an experience, all roads are straight and every junction has lights. We crossed a few bridges and the buildings were massive  but every now and then you catch sight of a snow covered mountain peak. 
Arrived at horseshoe bay after a slight detour (I blame the Sat-Nav) in time for the 1700hr crossing only to find it had broke down and we had to wait till 1900hrs for the next one. This was a blessing, it gave us time to relax we walked around the village which was such a nice place. A small bay with a few bars and shops so relaxing. Again it was strange, here we are in the bay with a warm sun on us and being surrounded by mountains all topped with snow. 
I met my first Canadian.... This is how it went down.... I went to photograph a couple of Geese with Goslings down on the shore, sat on the rocks was a guy with his shoes off having a beer and relaxing, he still had a few teeth left. "hey man, if you get a good picture can you sent it to me. My pictures aren't so good" and so we began to chat. He loved BC and said we were lucky to see all it's beauty, I told him we were going to the island. "oh man you'll love it there it's sooo laid back and the weed is great"!! 
The ferry crossing was almost a disaster as I parked between 2 posts and we couldn't get our doors open!!! A nice lady guided me forward a little and we were free.
Free coffee and tea onboard and so we had 2 massive cups of coffee or korrfeee if you are Canadian.
After the ferry we headed straight up to Parksville and then west onto route 4 this road spans the island east to west, it was dark by now and we were shattered. We found a Motel by the roadside at Port Alberni and pulled over to stay. I'm not sure if it was because of the tiredness, but the fact that the China man who let us in our room was about 6 foot tall completely baffled me