Tofino

Today I have the honour to display two pieces of valuable writings from my dear students, Terry and Edward, who together travelled to this small town, Tofino, last summer (2009) on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Terry wrote:

「吐芬奴 Tofino 位處太平洋岸邊的一個小鎮，從溫哥華出發要乘汽車渡輪往溫哥華島的乃磨巿 Nanaimo，由那裡再向東行穿越溫哥華島，直達太平洋那邊的吐芬奴，全程大概三、四個小時，沿横跨公路經過許多人口稀少的小鎮和湖泊，也會走在兩旁有高聳大樹的原始森林公路。沿吐芬奴一帶有不少海浪沖刷形成的天然沙灘和眾多灘邊旅館，按地勢而定，有些是觀浪的理想地點，海水因潮漲沖向嶙峋大石能激起巨大浪花，潮退則露出甚至有幾十米闊的灘面，供遊人帶著寵物狗或緩步或跑步，忘記一點，這裡的旅館許多都歡迎帶同家犬一同住宿。七、八月時份，在柔和的海風吹送中，面迎向太平洋沖進來的浪花，聽著海濤，不禁令人懷緬岸那邊成長的故鄉。」

Edward wrote:

"Tofino is a fishing village facing the Pacific Ocean on the west side of Vancouver Island. There are whale watching, wave surfing, fishing, trail exploring right at the town. The Pacific Ocean is huge and the forest surrounding the area is very beautiful.

We spend three days two nights in one of the beach resorts. There is a very good restaurant in our hotel (actually it is the most high-rated restaurant in the area), and we enjoy a 6-course dinner. The atmosphere is very relaxing with beautiful music and scenery of the ocean. It is just perfect."

Note: The fir trees here are taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. The dishes of food chosen by Edward and Terry were vegetables more than meat. They were healthy. As Edward said and I agree too that the food served here was rather expensive.

I envy Edward's 6-course meal because we only have such a thing at Christmas when a Big Christmas Meal (聖誕大餐) is served.