Why I Moved to Hornby Island to Open a Spa

People have been asking me why I decided to open a second Stillwater on Hornby Island.

It's actually kind of a funny story because if you'd asked me a few years ago where I'd expand, I don't think Hornby would have even crossed my mind.

In the summer of 2025, my then-boyfriend invited me on a sailing trip aboard a little sailboat called Astral Blue—which I still think is one of the best boat names ever. It was him, one of his close friends and me. We left from Hornby, anchored overnight at Jedediah Island, and ended the trip in Nanaimo at his childhood home. It was one of my favourite memories from that summer.

I had been talking for years about wanting to open a second Stillwater somewhere one day. At some point during the trip he looked around and said, "You should open your second location on Hornby."

I remember thinking, Really?

But then we wandered through the little town centre and something about it stayed with me. It felt small and unpretentious. After so many years in Tofino where summer are cooler and thick in morning fog, Hornby felt warm in every sense of the word. It reminded me a little of Hawaii, where I went to massage school years ago. Not because they look exactly the same, but because they share a similar feeling.

One of my favourite parts of the trip was Jedediah Island. Sheep still wander the island today, left behind from the family who once built a life there. I remember walking around thinking about them. What would it have been like to choose that island? To build a home there? To raise a family there? I don't know if places literally hold energy, but I do think they hold stories. Sometimes you can almost feel that people loved a place deeply, and somehow that love becomes part of the landscape.

I'm always searching for meaning in things. A song that seems to play at exactly the right moment. A memory that keeps coming back. A place that feels familiar before you can explain why. Unexpected opportunities and chance meetings. People you feel you've known forever. I've stopped dismissing those moments because some of the biggest chapters of my life began with something small that simply refused to leave me alone.. Following noticing the signs and synchronicities has always lead me places.

The relationship eventually ended. For awhile I kept asking myself what I was supposed to take away from it. I didn't want the grief to exist for nothing. I wanted to find the beauty within. Looking back I think Hornby was part of that. The relationship wasn't meant to last, but perhaps the seed it planted was.

And to be honest, that's how Stillwater has always been born. When life hurts, my instinct isn't to close my heart. It's to create. Stillwater exists because I've always wanted to create beauty from pain. It's my way of making sense of the world. That instinct shows up in little ways too. Sometimes it's spending an unreasonable amount of time thinking about how someone will feel when they first walk down the path into the spa. Planting lavender outside the treatment tent. Choosing the music that will be playing when they settle onto the table. Those details matter to me because I want people to feel cared for before a treatment even begins.

Hornby hasn't been the dreamy seamless chapter I imagined. The opening was delayed. The original build had to be redone after major mistakes. There were days I cried, days I wondered if I'd made a terrible decision, and a day I considered to pack everything up and go home. I'm still in the middle of that story. I don't know yet whether Hornby will become one of the best decisions I've ever made or one of my greatest lessons. Maybe it'll end up being both.

These days I'm splitting my time between Tofino and Hornby. During the season I'm living in a tiny off-grid home on a farm with a wonderful local woman named Helen. She raised her family here, grows much of her own food, and has this spirit of self-sufficiency that I really admire. I'm learning from her, getting used to life with an outhouse, and slowly finding my new rhythm.

People sometimes ask why I call Stillwater a Nature Spa instead of simply a spa. I think it's because nature has always helped me make sense of my own life. Nature and its cycles seem to speak in metaphors. If you become quiet enough to notice, they'll often reflect your own life back to you and show you wisdom.

Whether you visit us in Tofino or Hornby, my hope is the same. I hope you leave feeling softer than when you arrived. I hope the sound of the ocean, the smell of cedar, and an hour or so without needing to be anywhere else reminds you that healing doesn't always happen in one big moment. Sometimes it begins in still moments. Sometimes it begins with a tiny seed. And sometimes you don't understand why that seed was planted until years later, when you finally have the chance to look back and see what’s grown.

—Helena