When the sun came out the next day Tofino turned out to be a lovely coastal holiday village with a number of beaches and wonderful scenery.
Being a weekend in school holidays it was pretty crowded and parking nearly impossible, but we managed to negotiate the 4-way stop signs, stay on the right side of the road and find a park near our rendezvous with Kate McCallum from Tofino Food Tours.
This could not have been a better way to get to know the town. We were the only people on the tour, which was great for us. Kate had had a very big tour the day before with some rather unpleasant people so she was happy that there were only two amiable Australians to look after.
We got to know each other over maple bacon donuts and jelly berry donuts at the Rhino Coffee Bar, the go to place for the local fishermen in the early morning and the tourists for the rest of the day. 
Then it was a wander through the town whilst Kate told us the history, and gossip, of Tofino. 
Carved from a 300-year-old windfall cedar, the 6.4-metre body and tears are of one piece, with hands and feet carved separately and mortised in.
SoBo was started in a well-equipped purple catering truck to rave reviews from locals. News of the its fresh and amazing food soon reached visitors and they were named one of the top 10 Canadian restaurants in En Route magazine in their opening year, 2003. Since then they have moved into a purpose built permanent restaurant. When Lisa’s son was born she scaled back and now chefs at lunch time which is mainly fish and vegetarian, her love. The nights are catered for by another top chef who specialises in meats of all description. The awards still keep coming in.
On the Schooner Inn for some fish chowder. One of the oldest eating establishments in Tofino it first opened its doors in 1949. Visitors to Tofino were a rare and hardy breed back in those days and willing to brave a four-hour, white-knuckle, unpaved logging road from Port Alberni. It gets its name from the schooner, half of which sticks out the back and half in the restaurant and was the vision of three wayward draft dodgers from the Vietnam War.
The Paddler’s Inn, which was Tofino’s original hotel, was constructed in the early 1900’s when guests arrived by ship and there was no road access to the west coast. We sat on the balcony and sampled a range of produce from the Picnic Charcuterie Company whilst overlooking the fabulous harbour and Meares Island with bald eagles soaring overhead and seaplanes taking off. 
From there it was down to the Dockside Smoked Fish Store where wild smoked pacific salmon is served in all it’s forms. Run by the First Nation people of the area it is situated behind the Himwista Native Art Gallery, which we also visited. We were served a platter of Wild Smoked Sockeye Indian Candy, Wild Smoked Chum Honey Garlic, Wild Smoked Chinook Lemon Peppered and Wild Smoked Chum Teriyaki – all of them delicious!
Our last stop was the Ice House Oyster Bar situated on the Tofino Fish Company pier, where the fishermen top up with ice.
We sat out on the patio in the sun and tried the Umami Tsunami Oyster, a Baked Middle Beach oyster with mushroom ragout, marmite and anchiote mayonnaise.
To drink with this we had a Tofino Brewing Company Kelp Stout. The kelp is infused in the beer at three different stages of the brew. This results in a fairly robust stout with a smoky cocoa and caramel flavor and the rather subtle salty presence of the sea. 
We admired the tiny kitchen, which used to be a coldroom, and heard the story of the young chef who came to Tofino and transformed the restaurant from a mediocre eating establishment to an award winning restaurant. That, and a read of the menu, was enough for us and we booked in for the next night.
Kate left us there to enjoy the sun and with vouchers for the Tofino Chocolate Ice Creamery, which was on our way back to the motel. It had been a fabulous, relaxed and informative tour and we can’t recommend it highly enough.
We headed back to the motel via the Ice Creamery and sampled their icecreams. Just as delicious as promised!
A long walk on the beach and then back to our room to get ready for the next day – sea kayaking to find the black bears. This was also a recommendation from Tim and Sandra but in the intervening period the company had bought a boat and they now launched the kayaks from the boat. Climbing into a kayak from a rocky boat was something I was viewing with ever increasing trepidation.