We drove that morning to Tofino, the drive was beautiful, very hilly and scenic. We arrived 2 hours later in Tofino to find that there was no cheap accommodation, the weather was bad, the surf was bad, and it was mega expensive. Parking, even at the beaches, was about $10 a day, hiring a board for a day would've been $50 a day, so in the end, we took a scenic drive back via Ucluelet, which reminded us a bit of Tutukaka in New Zealand so we stopped for a walk around before heading back to Port Alberni. We went back to the backpackers we were staying in and booked for 3 nights. There were lots of things to do not too far from this hostel, and we met nice people and it was cheap. The next day we drove to Coombs, which has lots of little shops and markets, and there is one market with goats eating grass on the roof! We picked up some supplies for a picnic and then drove down to When we bought the bread Jack took a cardboard box which apparently he is going to turn into an arm rest in the car....

We drove down to some waterfalls i can't remember the name of, and ate our lunch there. We were being harassed by wasps trying to eat our sandwiches, so we ate quickly and Jack killed a couple with a pack of laughing cow cheese. It was a short walk from the lower falls to the upper falls, and it was really nice. After that, we drove to Cameron Lake and had a swim. It is beautiful there, the water was freezing at first, then it got really nice after a while. After our swim we dried off in the sun and just relaxed for a bit.

That night we just hung out with people from the hostel having a few drinks. Jack had bought some doritos and dip, and offered it to everyone. To Jack's astonishment, one particular person went to town on the doritos and dip, taking two at a time, dip all over the crisp packet and generally eating more than jack was! Stunned by this, Jack decided to pretend he was full and remove the doritos and dip from the table. He then took them to the room and whenever he was 'going to the toilet' he ate some then. That is why Jack doesn't share crsips.

The next day, we arranged to go tubing with some people from the hostel. There were 5 of us, we were ready to go at 10.00am as arranged, but ended up going at 1.00pm, so we hung around for most of the morning. The weather had got much better, and it was sunny and back up to about 28 degrees. We drove two cars to the finish point, and left on there, then drove to the start in another. We had kids dingy's which we floated down the river on. We had been told that there were small rapids, which turned out to be bigger and a little scarier than we thought. One rapid at the end appeared to be a small waterfall about 5 feet!!!! Before the waterfall I tried to cling on to a rock so that I could assess the best way to go down it, meanwhile Jack raced past me backwards shouting 'is everything ok, why have you stopped?' He then saw the waterfall and managed to sail over it, with me following shortly after. But everyone survived and we had a really nice day, and were really tired afterwards.

We then decided to leave the island so that we can start to make our way to our friends in Alberta. We took the ferry from the island to Tsawassan which is south of Vancouver, and drove until we reached a very small place called Hope. We got there later than expected because we missed the first ferry crossing. We turned off for Hope and enquired at the first Motel we saw (as it didn't look like one of those prostitute strangling motels as Jack put it) and it was really cheap, clean, looked like it belonged in the 70's but still had a TV and fridge, AC and our own bathroom all for just $5 each more per night than some hostels (which have generally been pretty pricey in the cities). We booked only for one night, and headed to see what Hope has to offer. When we drove through it was just big empty streets, a real hicktown, so we got some supplies (dairy queen for Jack) and headed back to our room.

This morning, we left early, returning to the motel only once as I left my phone under my pillow, and we drove 250km to Penticton. The drive was pretty tough as it is hilly and wyndy, but the scenery was stunning. It started off with lush green trees on the landscape and as we drove further inland it turned to desert. It is 32 degress here in Penticton, but it has a beautiful lake with sandy beaches which we will probably hit tomorrow.

The car is going well, we have discovered cruise control which is truly amazing, Jack had it on for so long he didn't realise he was sitting cross legged in the driver seat! Probably not such a good idea!! Driving has been good here, the roads are huge, especially in the towns and cities making it easy to throw u-turns when you realise you have gone the wrong way! Petrol is really cheap at only $1.08 per litre, but it's annoying you have to pay first, as we don't actually know for sure how much our tank takes, as we can't guess the price!

We are staying here for 2 or 3 days, then moving along East toward Nelson. For anyone who is following the map, I think it is Highway 3 that we will be following.

Will try and get some pics of Vancouver Island on soon, having some troubles with the uploader currently!

xxx