How to have a glorious holiday on Bowen Island.

Bowen Island is a short 20-25 minute ferry from Horeshoe Bay, just north of Vancouver. Its a little island with some full time residents and a lot of Vancouverites with cabins. My friend Carolynn's family, the Beatys, have a cottage here that is on the southwest tip facing Vancouver Island. The little red cottage sits on a hill looking out over Tunstall bay and nestled within over a hundred acres of forest. They bought this place in the mid-90s from the Wonder family, two sisters who sold it to the Beatys on the condition that they wouldn't subdivide it and develop it like many others wanted to. They had no intention other than to enjoy its natural beauty and offer an idyllic space for their family to spend as much time as possible whenever they tire of Vancouver's pace. Because they bought the land from the Wonder family, its still known as Wonderland, and I can see why Carolynn says that this is her favourite place to be.

As a nearly essential stop on my trip, and for what feels truly like a holiday, I came to spend my last few days on the west coast with Carolynn and some of her family. And here's how we were able to live the lives of ladies of leisure on holiday:

1.We made some impressive deals with the weather gods to ensure several days in a row of hot, sunny, perfectly summery weather – hovering around 30c. Lovely. A light breeze coming in off the ocean was also always welcome.

2.We went to bed early (before midnight anyway) and slept long and deep and late.

3.Cycled the hills and curves of Bowen's one main road and few side roads. The cycle into Snug cove on the opposite end of the island took us about 19 minutes there and 23 minutes back – its more uphill on the way back. There are some killer inclines tucked around the island though – I passed a sign today that said 14% grade – but its good to remember that what goes up here will go down. Especially since wel had to go back the way we came as there are no loops on the island, just a lot of back and forth. After a few of these back and forths and up and downs, we stopped for a soy cappuccino and bran-fruit muffin at one of the (at least three, from what I've surveyed first hand so far) trendy cafes in snug cove where we caught up on the news in the Vancouver Sun and regained some strength for the cycle back across (and around and up and down) the island back to Beaty's Wonderland. My fastest going downhill so far here is 56.5 kms – 16.5 kms over the speedlimit of 40.

4.After a few days of cycling, we substituted the above description for a hike across (and up and down) the forested hills of Bowen (including the cafe stop in Snug cove). We wouldn't bump into bears here, just the ever-present deer; while jumpy when you pass them on in a noisy vehicle, passing by a deer on foot or bike usually just evokes a steady, curious stare from them as you mosey on quietly by. I usually say good morning or afternoon to them as I pass by, just to watch their ears twitch a bit.

5.Every day we swam in the bay. Its best when the tide is in. No, its not too cold. Really. The first dip is, of course, refreshing, and then we just swam at our own pace out to the little island of rock in the middle of the bay and back again. We stopped at the island of rock for a while, or on the floating dock halfway between the two.

6.We convinced Ross, Carolynn's dad, to take us for a spin on the boat. Lumina is equipped with a motor, leather seats, a stereo, and a Canadian flag. Its a great way to see Bowen and all the other islands in the Howe Sound fjord adjacent to Vancouver. I just wish we could take it for a spin along Amsterdam's canals. Alternatively, what I think I'm about to do now, we'll nestle into a sea kayak and work those arms to balance out the hiking and cycling.

7.Lolled around in the sun and the shade and a mixture of both reading. A perfect place to see how many books you can get through in the days that you spend here. I've been here two and half days and I'm halfway through my second book. Carolynn's on her third.

8.Admired the Beatys's garden. Raspberries, rhubarb, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, beets, beans, peas, broccoli and peanuts... and the neighbour is trying his hand at wine grapes. We used whatever of these fresh ingredients mixed with those acquired the usual way in the store to make some absolutely delicious salads.

9.Ate the salads with fresh Salmon. Luckily for us during our stay this week, Ross returned from a fishing trip with a salmon that he'd caught that day. It is the way that food should be eaten: “Beaty-beet” salad; rosemary infused salmon; bean and broccoli crudites; simple, fresh butter lettuce salad with peas; rhubarb, raspberry and lavender galettes for dessert ... a true Hunter-Gatherer way of eating that any foody would fall in love with.

10.Drank a glass of wine or beer whenever we felt like it, and almost strictly local flavours from Okanagan vineyards and BC breweries. A beautiful way we spent a couple of evenings was to take a bottle down to the dock on the tip of land that jets out just beyond the cottage. As the sun set, we sipped while reading and admiring the warm, golden-buttery way the setting sun lights up the coast of the bay, looking out for seals and chatting with the curious geese family who live in the bay and hopped up onto the rock to see if we had any food to share. We've been lolling about in a Canadian version of paradise and could have a drink whenever the taste for it struck us, but with no need to overdue it because this is no place for hangovers. In a book that I finished reading yesterday, Journey by Midnight by the Hungarian Antal Szerb, the narrator returned to the following translation a couple of times and it stuck out for me: “Foied vinom pipafo, cra carefo. = Enjoy the wine today, tomorrow there will be none.” Thankfully here on Bowen, on holiday, we can enjoy the wine both today and tomorrow. Therefore, no need to consume it all today.

11.Carolynn advised, “don't scratch the many mosquito bites you're sure to get during the evening; scratching will only make the itch worse.” The mosquitoes in Canada are dumb and slow, so you can swat and kill quite a lot in the course of one evening. They do prefer to come out when the sun starts to set, but no matter how good you are at squashing them, there will always be quite a lot that will get you without you noticing – until the next morning and you start to scratch. So we left our doors closed in the evening to avoid having one of those middle-of-the-night or early-morning battles with the one or two insistent buggers who invade your bedroom while you sleep and dive bomb their annoying way down to your forehead. At least we've got screens on the windows, a Canadian homebuilding trend that I wish they would adopt in Europe.

12.Sleeping in Uncle Ben's cabin*, I also wanted to keep the doors closed at night when I was inside with the lights on. That way I ended up hearing the inevitable knocking and banging on the window of the army of moths, ranging from small to enormous, wanting to get in to the light. Last night while I was reading in bed, I tuned out the knocking and banging until I heard what sounded distnictly like an electric motor zooming to life and carving a path around and around inside my little room. The zoom went around and around and around, and when I looked I saw one of the enormous moths, roughly the size of a small hummingbird, circling under the light. It then began to bonk its head wildly into the light and against the ceiling, driving itself wilder and wilder, until it finally ricocheted against the ceiling and thudded firmly, and suddenly quietly, on the top bunk. I took that opportunity to scoop it up with the dustpan and broom in the room and quickly toss it out the door before any others could enter so that it wouldn't keep me awake in its zany nighttime flight. All of which leads me to recommend (and the same is true for a moth anywhere) to wait to catch it and toss it out until the poor thing has nearly knocked itself out and landed somewhere, because trying to catch a frantic gigantic moth is like... well, like trying to catch a frantic gigantic moth. Probably a better way to deal with the moth is to turn off the lights and let it find its way out, as Trish wisely recommends.

*(Uncle Ben's cabin is a little cabin next to the main one where the Wonder sisters's Uncle Dan lived. Its actually called Uncle Dan's cabin and its where I am lodging, but for some reason I keep referring to it as Uncle Ben's).

13.Finally, we took a lot of time to sit and notice the view, talk with those who are also here, take photographs so I, at least, wouldn't forget it, and just chill.

14.We'll repeat in any order that suits us tomorrow.

Thanks Carolynn and family for a totally relaxing almost-week spent at Wonderland.