The Haven

I stayed overnight here while visiting the island with my wife. We didn’t want to overstay our welcome with the friends we were with, and heard good things about The Haven, so we decided to give a shot and spend a night at the establishment. The waterfront location is serene and gorgeous and it was fantastic waking up in the morning to hear the crash of the ocean waves and see the sun rising over the mountains of Vancouver Island. We took breakfast in our room and both my wife and I felt disappointed when it was time to leave for our ferry.
About fifteen minutes after we left, a shock of panic gripped me and I realised I had forgotten my main bag in the lobby! It was no problem though, we had left early, so we turned our car around and headed to collect my bag. I thought this would have been a relatively straightforward process but when I entered the lobby and spoke to the receptionist, my bag was nowhere to be found. We searched our room and the halls but alas, the bag had simply disappeared. I was quite annoyed by this point, I was sure I had left it in the room, and didn’t understand why it would suddenly vanish. While waiting in the lobby, the manager of the Surf came in and started to speak to the receptionist, who pointed at me. The manager came up to me and introduced himself, and overall seemed friendly. I explained the situation to him, and he informed that HE had found the bag in the room. As you can imagine, I was very relieved and asked him to retrieve it for me, at which point he informed me that he suspected the bag had actually been a bomb, and he had thrown it in the ocean.
Now, at this point I was stunned. I understand that in our post-​9/​11 world it is natural to be wary of the threat of terrorist attacks, but it seemed a tad overzealous to immediately assume a bag in a room was a bomb. It struck me as highly illogical to believe terrorists would strike at a small, non-​profit hotel on a tiny island off the coast of BC, and I wondered why he had not called the police if he legitimately believe the bag to be a bomb. However, I decided it was best to remain calm, and I asked the manager to take me to the spot where he had thrown the bag. I had a small hope that maybe the bag had washed back up on the shore, and the contents inside wouldn’t be too damaged.
The manager led me down to the shore and to the spot where he had thrown my bag, but to my dismay it was nowhere to be seen. The manager seemed to really not care about my troubles and I began to get frustrated, and I told him he was incompetent. Some nasty words were exchanged, but in the end I realized I wasn’t helping the situation so I apologized, and told him I would be on my way. Now at this point, the manager got a strange look on his face, and began to speak oddly. He told me he lied about throwing my bag in the ocean, and he knew exactly where it was, I would just have to give him something to get it back. It was incredibly bizarre and I had a bad feeling, but I asked him what he wanted from me. He leaned over very close to me, his lips almost touching my ears, and very softly, he whispered
«Well I’mma need about three fiddy.»
Now it was around this moment that I realised that this ‘hotel manager’ was actually about eight stories tall and appeared to be a sea creature from the Mesozoic Era. A gasp escaped my lips and I could see that this wasn’t a manager at all, but the mighty Loch Ness Monster.
«No Monster, I’m not giving you three fiddy!» I yelled, terrified at the sight of his scaly, dinosaur-​like jaw, and ten-​foot long claws. The creature opened its mouth and let forth an Earth-​shattering roar before turning towards the ocean and diving in, his massive tail smashing a small house next to the Surf Lodge higher up on the shore. His massive reptilian body caused a giant splash that completely soaked me through, ruining my clothes, and breaking my iPhone. Left there standing on the beach stunned, I breathed a sigh of relief that I had escaped an encounter with this monster from the deep, and decided there was nothing more to do.
I managed to find my way back to my car and my incredibly confused wife, and discovered that I had the bag in the car the entire time. We ended up missing our ferry, Overall I would say the location and facilities were great, but the service left something to be desired.

I first came to the Haven back in 1984 to attend the Come Alive workshop a dear friend had recommended. I’ll never forget what she said to me after she’d returned from her first visit — «Just go Duane. Don’t even think about it. Just go.» So I did and what I got has been unimaginable peace with my Self, and a profound connection with people and all of life. The Haven is both a beautiful island resort and a place to attend educational and transformational workshops. We especially love to get the spa treatment while there by getting massages from Elfi Shaw and Gary Dillon. I cannot say enough about how great the Haven is. Just go! You’ll never stop thanking yourself for the lifelong gift you gave to yourself.