Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - North Shore News - A27
Fairwinds worth the ferry ride Mark Hood Contributing Writer
THE adventure continues, and then some. This month we took another cruise via B.C. Ferries to Vancouver Island where we stayed in Parksville and played the Fairwinds Golf Course at nearby Nanoose Bay. In a spring of inconsistent weather, we scored sunshine and made the most of it. Joining me were friends Dan Rothenbush, Steve Becker and David Hanley. We stayed in Parksville at the Tigh-Na-Mara Resort. It’s a family and pet-friendly getaway spot that offers great accommodations in log cabins or units overlooking the ocean. There are tennis courts, a playground for the youngsters and a very good restaurant, but you can cook in your room if you prefer. There’s also a spa that’s gained a reputation as one of the province’s best, though we didn’t take advantage of it. Our destination, Fairwinds, was a 15-minute car ride away and is one of the finest examples you’ll find anywhere of a planned community with a recreational focus where the needs of visitors, residents and the surrounding ecosystem are cared for in remarkably effective harmony. On a fully Audubon-certified course, the grounds crew at Fairwinds go out of their way to ensure their policies and practices benefit the surrounding environment; more about that later. Conceived in the early 1980s, the Fairwinds project succeeded where others failed by having a long-term vision and sticking to it. They took their time, working with local groups and the Nanaimo Regional District to produce a destination that, over 20 years later, just keeps getting better. The Fairwinds community includes the Schooner Cove Marina, the Fairwinds Golf Course, some 30 kilometres of forest trails, a 20,000 square foot community centre and thousands of homes tucked discreetly in a 1,350-acre site that’s still largely undeveloped. In the next few years, the Schooner Cove neighbourhood plan includes the addition of housing, shops and services in a mixed-use waterfront village that will improve public access to the ocean and save people the drive to Parksville for shopping. There will also be phased development of single and multi-family housing, additional parks and another community centre on the ridge between Enos Lake and Dolphin Lake. Area residents share a common facial expression: they look happy. This is the kind of place people who work hard all their lives reward themselves with either as a holiday or retirement home. It’s all here: walking and cycling trails, boating and of course, golf. The Fairwinds Golf Course is a voluptuous Les Furber-designed come-hither teaser. Like his other signature courses — Vernon’s Predator Ridge and our own Northlands in North Vancouver — it’s not the longest in the world at 6,204 yards from the blue tees, but the challenges…oh, the challenges. Fairwinds rolls with nonchalant ease into and around the low hills of Vancouver Island’s eastern shore. You play among arbutus groves and tall stands of ancient evergreens that blot out the rest of the world and keep this peaceful place quieter still. There is abundant wildlife. That day the course was alive with deer — blacktail fawns and yearlings in mid-moult. They were everywhere and had little fear of golfers, even after watching us tee off. The tranquility you get to experience is just as well. With every See Course page 28
CONCEIVED in the early 1980s, the Fairwinds golf course and surrounding community succeeded where others failed by having a long-term vision and sticking to it. NEWS photos Mark Hood