I had been meaning to visit Tofino for so many years before finally making this little trip happen. I had heard so many good things about it; the surf culture, the beaches, the Van Isle dream…
Luckily, my friend Amanda had moved to BC not long before I had some time off, and we planned a weekend roadtrip. She was living in Mission at the time, so I flew from YOW to YVR, and then took the train from Vancouver to Mission to stay with her for a few nights before we took off.
Early on the Friday morning, we headed out toward the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal to hop over to the Island. It’s definitely a good idea to buy your ferry ticket a few weeks in advance if you are driving a car onto the boat as opposed to a pedestrian ticket.
Once we disembarked in Nanaimo, we stopped at a cute cafe called Drip Coffee Social before hitting the road.
Following the Alberni Highway, we stopped at the Old Country Market to see the goats on the roof – a must-see imo!
We also made a pit stop at Cathedral Grove, were lucky to get a parking spot, and walked through the forest for a bit, taking in the enormity of these ancient trees.
After a gorgeous drive through the mountains of the island, we headed into Tofino under a pretty heavy rain. It was October, so this wasn’t surprising. It really just added to the island atmosphere. Finally, we checked into our hotel, Whaler’s Guesthouse. This is technically a hostel, with shared bathrooms and kitchen facilities. However, it was still $100 per night (the most budget-friendly option I could find…). Anyways, it worked well for our purposes and we slept well in our bunkbeds.
It rained pretty much the entire Saturday, but there were still enough little shops and cafes open that we could run between to occupy ourselves. A lot of Skip Bo was played on this trip…like a lot. We aren’t competitive at all.
There was a period of no rain in the early evening, which we took advantage of by walking along the beach at Cox Bay and beachcombing during sunset. It
Finally, the sun stayed out on Sunday, and we headed to McKenzie Beach (did we actually surf here?) Took a lesson with Tofino Paddle Surf’s instructor Ricardo. Ricardoooo!! We loved Ricardo! He told me it’s a good thing the water is so cold, makes you forget there could be sharks around….pardon!?
Now, I call myself an athlete…this session made me reconsider that self-imposed label. The waves were super beginner friendly, but I could not stay up on the board? This was still only my 3rd time surfing, but if you know me, you know I need to be good at things right away. Close to the end of our session, we were coming into shore to look for a better spot when Ricardo told us to watch out for the tide. The waves seemed to be coming in super small so we were like yeah yeah got it and then both got absolutely rocked by the wave. Ricardo just laughed and said I told you so.
After we had swallowed what was left of our pride and gotten out of our wetsuits, we walked over to Milk and Moss cafe for a hot drink. I had the spiced pear chai and I have been thinking about it ever since.
