Some businesses start with a market gap. Terra Nova Nordic Spa & Cafe started with a feeling.
“I love Nordic spas, and I felt that there was a need here to do that,” said Jodi Pendry, who owns Terra Nova alongside Pete Overdevest. “So I jumped right in.”
The journey from that instinct to an open business was longer than either of them expected. Jodi and Pete bought the property in 2017, and construction stretched out well beyond the original timeline as they worked through financing and started small out of necessity. Then COVID hit mid-build. Rather than stall entirely, they adapted — opening an outdoor café and adding some aesthetic services, pulling together whatever funding avenues the pandemic made available. The official Nordic thermal experience finally opened its doors on December 1, 2022, and the business has grown steadily every year since.
At its core, Terra Nova offers what Jodi calls the Nordic thermal experience: a deliberate rhythm of hot, cold, and rest. Guests move between hot pools, saunas, and steam rooms, then cool down through cold pools, outdoor showers, and dump buckets, before settling into one of several relaxation spaces. It’s a formula built around contrast and stillness rather than simple poolside lounging — something Jodi has worked hard to make distinctly Terra Nova’s own.
That distinction comes down to scale, and to Jodi, scale is everything. While some of the larger Nordic spas she admires can host 800 to 1,200 guests a day, Terra Nova caps out around 130. That smaller footprint allows something Jodi considers non-negotiable: genuine personal attention. Staff check guest history when people arrive — when they last visited, what they enjoyed — building the kind of familiarity larger operations simply can’t offer. “We want to pick up all these nuances that make our guests feel seen, heard, and valued,” Jodi said. Achieving that starts internally, with a deliberate effort to build a personable, professional culture among employees first, in the belief that a team that feels genuinely cared for will extend that same care to guests.
Building that culture, however, has come with its own hard lesson. “I cannot expect the same effort from others that I am willing to give,” Jodi said, calling it one of the most unexpected realities of ownership. Finding staff who fit Terra Nova’s specific culture has taken sustained effort — and continues to, even with a strong team now in place. “People are dynamic,” she said, and keeping that culture intact requires ongoing attention rather than a one-time fix.
That same discipline shapes the advice Jodi offers new entrepreneurs: stay focused, and resist the pull toward doing too much too soon. She recognizes the instinct firsthand — in Terra Nova’s early days, she found herself constantly wanting to add new features and services before the core offering was fully dialed in. Her advice now is to nail down your core value first, then expand in stages, letting ideas mature rather than launching everything at once. Several of Terra Nova’s current features, she notes, were ideas she’d had years earlier that simply weren’t ready yet.
Looking ahead, Jodi’s focus is on polish rather than pure expansion — refining the guest experience into something seamless, professional, and personable at every touchpoint. She’s also exploring ways to bring corporate partnerships into the mix, offering businesses a space for employee wellness and team building. She sees real, underestimated value in relaxation itself, and wants Terra Nova to be part of how local businesses invest in their people.
For Jodi, who moved to the area from Wellington County, Rural Oxford wasn’t fully on her radar before she got here. What’s kept her rooted since is the tight-knit but far-reaching local business community — running into familiar faces on the street, connecting with small business networks and employment services, and building relationships with other Oxford County businesses along the way. “It’s a small community, but not so small,” she said.
Terra Nova’s Nordic thermal experience is open seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., with body treatments available to complement a visit — massages are especially popular, alongside body scrubs, wraps, a Japanese head spa, and mud spa treatments, each given Terra Nova’s own distinct spin.
Jodi is currently having fun curating new additions to the ritual lineup — including a banya ritual in the sauna, a dedicated steam room ritual, and sound bath sessions — layering in experiences guests won’t find elsewhere in the region. Behind the scenes, an ambitious construction project already underway has grown considerably beyond its original scope. A new hot pool and cold pool are being added out back, along with a striking new structure Jodi calls the Hobbit House — set to house a dedicated ritual sauna, a cooling waterfall, and a salt float pool, all designed as much for visual impact as function. The expansion also solves a practical challenge: creating clearly defined quiet zones, since keeping guest areas hushed has long been one of Terra Nova’s biggest balancing acts.
From a feeling Jodi couldn’t shake in 2017 to a growing sanctuary in Hickson today, Terra Nova continues to expand the same way it started — deliberately, personally, and with a clear sense of exactly what it wants to be.
Terra Nova Nordic Spa & Cafe
Jodi Pendry & Pete Overdevest
596145 Oxford 59, Hickson, ON
East Zorra-Tavistock Township
Established 2022
(226) 796-9181
terranovanordic.ca
facebook.com/terranovahwy59
@terra_nova_nordic_spa