Pete and Ashleigh Clarke welcomed their first guests to their new luxury glamping site ‘Wildpod Tofino’ on Jan.19, 2019.
Located at the tip of Grice Point on the edge of Tofino’s townsite, the waterfront resort features six themed domes, each equipped with an ensuite bathroom, kitchenette and propane fire. All the decking is cedar, said Pete, and they tried to go local for amenities too, filling the fern green pods with products from Tofino Soap Co., Tofino Towel Co., and local coffee.
“Every bed, every light fitting, every lamp, every side table is different in each dome. We made them all different based on words around Tofino,” said Pete, noting that his favourite one is ‘Sand’ while Ashleigh, on the other hand, is fond of the ‘Rock’ themed pod.
“We’ve been quite literal with the themes,” he said. “Rock is all grey and cave-like, and then Wave is all blues and the bed is like a driftwood.”
The vision for opening a glamping site on their family-owned Tofino property first came to the Clarkes while they were living in the United Kingdom.
“We went on holiday in the English countryside in a horrible, damp, dilapidated yurt that was cold and wet and we actually had such a fun time. It was really memorable,” recalls Pete.
“We just thought if we could do this, but instead of a damp yurt, something beautiful with amazing views and really went for it how amazing would that be?” he said.
For safety reasons, due to the resorts’ close proximity to the water, Wildpod is strictly an adults-only and pet-free accommodation.
“It lends itself to a couples’ resort,” said Ashleigh. “We want to give guests the maximum zen, quiet, peaceful experience.”
“We do laugh that we couldn’t stay here ourselves,” said Pete, a father of newborn boy Philo and three-year-old girl Ellamaia.
“Unless we got a babysitter,” Ashleigh notes. “Which, to be honest, coming to a place like this I wouldn’t mind to come down and have little baby moon.”
The pods are made from PVC and were sourced from Europe, according to Pete.
“They are built to be hurricane proof. Obviously we had that huge test before Christmas and they stood up absolutely no problem at all. We had no damage at all,” he said, adding that Wildpod will be open year-round.
Both Pete and Ashleigh said the experience of seeing their first business come to fruition has been surreal.
“The first time I opened the door to [Sand] my stomach just dropped a bit. It was like, wow. When the water is a little bit higher it’s like you’re floating on water. This is even better than we imagined,” said Pete.