SECRET COVE GETAWAY 2025
By definition, Milestone birthdays only occur once in a while, and when Norine had a Milestone birthday this year, I decided to surprise her with a Secret getaway. A mid-week escape to Rockwater Secret Cove Resort, 3 days to spoil and pamper her.
By Land and by Sea
For those of you not familiar with the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, it's a short ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver. You can't just drive there. So we headed out and caught a mid-morning ferry to Langdale, and drove up the coast to Secret Cove.
The BC coastline is beautiful on a sunny day!
On arrival, we are welcomed and given a map to get to our room, it's a bit of a walk along a series of boardwalks to get to our private tented bungalow. Complete with a deck overlooking the Ocean, a fireplace, shower, soaker tub, and even our own bathroom.
A bottle of Champagne and spectacular views!
The first order of business is the side-by-side deep tissue massages, a great way to wrap up a day of travel before dinner. Although my masseuse went a little hard on my calf and I had to treat it later.
As the lights go down, the boardwalks light up, and we had a lovely dinner, overlooking the sunset, at the resorts TuBird restaurant.
It definitely cools down a bit at night, so we put the fireplace and the giant quilts to good use.
The next morning we took advantage of the free use kayaks, and paddled around the cove and surrounding shorelines.
Between assorted seabirds, and seals, we would see more wildlife here than we did on our Alaskan Sampler cruise.
It's something to be silently floating out on the water and watching the Bald Eagles searching for their next meals.
After a nice brunch with mimosas we took advantage of the warm day, and hung out by the pool for the afternoon. So peaceful and quiet, cooling off in the chilly pool... until a bridal party showed up for a photo shoot. Squealing, Laughing, corks popping as they invade teh pool area. The collection of balloons they brought for the photos would randomly pop in the afternoon sun, scaring the crap out of everyone. We were very thankful when the finally left to go do a Yoga session far away from us. They left behind a giant mess of popped balloons and confetti that the staff had to clean up.
Heading back to our room, there is an Eagle perched right above us, until he eventually heads down to the water to scoop a salmon.
We decided to head north along teh coast for dinner, and checked out a recommended restaurant called The Lagoon at the Painted Boat Resort. A terrific seafood meal, with excellent service, and we had the restaurant to ourselves for most of the night.
We figured out that the fireplace had a fan, so it wasn't quite as chilly for our last night.
We woke up to an Eagle outside our room, and watched himas we packed up our stuff.
One last breakfast at the resort, and we headed up the coast to the town of Egmont and the world famous Skookumchuck Narrows. Skookumchuck Narrows Park provides trails and viewing areas to experience the awesome power of incredibly turbulent tidal rapids. On a three metre tide, 200 billion gallons of water flow through the narrows connecting Sechelt and Jervis Inlet. The difference in water levels between one side of the rapids and the other sometimes exceeds two metres (over 6 feet) in height. Current speeds can exceed 30 kph. The rapids are famous for their spectacular whirlpools and whitewater and are a big draw for the crazy kayak scene.
It's about a 4-5 km hike through beautiful forested trails passing a small lake before coming to the lookouts.
Most hikers will check the tide charts and time their visit to see the narrows at their most violent, but we had been here before and just wanted to just see it again. After appreciating the view for a while, we hiked back out the car, and returned to Egmont, home of the infamous Foam Henge.
Egmont Foam Henge approx 1993
After realizing we would never figure out where we stayed with friends a hundred years earlier, we headed back towards Gibson's Landing. Gibsons is home of the famous Beachcombers series, and the new Small Town Murders series
Since Molly's Reach closed early, we checked out the little Smoke on the Water shack, it was pretty good for a hole in the wall.
After filling our bellies, we headed to the ferry terminal and were loaded on to an earlier ferry that was late. A couple hours later and we were home.
When those Milestones happen, always take the chance to celebrate them. I'm pretty sure that Norine enjoyed this Milestone.