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It is our guides who make Hike Maui
the best. We've always had the top guides in the business, known for their
knowledge of Hawaiian botany, geology, culture and history. Our mission is
to teach people about Hawai`i,
and to do so while having a fun adventure. Anyone can walk you through the
woods. When you go with us, it will be the best day of your vacation.
Our
full-time guides are often asked by Mainland clients: "Is this a real
job?" (Most would like to have their office be the great outdoors!)
And, yes it is -- a really great job.
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Stephanie

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On the Mainland, Stephanie had numerous
interesting and strange wildlife/ biology jobs. Spawning endangered trout
and salmon species, for instance (actually putting the eggs and sperm
together). Monitoring spotted owls in Oregon. Counting frogs in Idaho. Releasing
falcons in Texas.
Inventorying and banding song birds. Managing a 200-acre preserve in Idaho for The Nature
Conservancy.
"Originally, I wanted to be a fish
biologist," she says. "I was enthralled with fish. Then I got
interested in wildlife biology, and, on my first job I learned to identify
130 birds by their songs. I didn't know I could do that! That was a real
confidence booster."
In Hawai`i,
she monitored several endemic bird species in two of our national parks.
Once here, of course, there was no going back. "I've discovered I
can't live in a place where there is no ocean. I have to do my surfing and
spear diving now. And, I need to be outside, not in a lab."
Stephanie's Rave Reviews
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Roger
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Before settling in Maui in 1986, Roger spent
five years as a Montana
fly fishing guide. He was also a wildlife biologist hanging out of
helicopters counting critters for six years in remote areas of Wyoming and Montana.
After so many quiet years in paradise (Maui)
and in the backwoods (Montana), Roger
wanted to live in a big city, so he moved to Kobe, Japan,
just in time for the earthquake of 1995. He stayed, teaching English, for
five years until he was fluent in Japanese.
Back on Maui again, he worked in a state
program with Maui's endemic birds. He also
did nighttime astronomy tours with Japanese tourists. When 9-11 caused
Japanese tourism to dwindle in Hawai`i,
we wired Roger up on green tea and sent him hiking. His facility with
language and science and his love of guiding make him a perfect fit for us.
Roger's
Rave Reviews
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Doug
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“I wanted to understand how things
work,” Doug says of his magna cum laude degree in physics. “My
love of nature hadn’t connected yet.” So he taught high school
physics until he moved to Colorado
to become an Outward Bound instructor. With nature as the true teacher
there was no returning to the classroom. He climbed nearly 200 peaks in Colorado, including
the highest 100 peaks (more than 13,000 feet each).
And then another adventure beckoned -- the
famous Pacific Crest Trail on the west coast. “I wanted to spend a
big chunk of time in the wilderness to see who I would become,” he
says, so he spent 4.5 months walking the 2650-mile trail from Mexico to Canada. “I became really
at peace.”
He joined Hike Maui to pursue his real focus:
“helping people fall in love with nature.” After two years he
left us for several months to walk the 3,000-mile Continental Divide Trail,
a grueling and exhilarating hike through sensational beauty. And thank
heavens he came back. “Hike Maui is
a natural for me,” he says. “I always want to do what I’m
passionate about.”
Doug's
Rave Reviews
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Ute
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"I truly knew I was home when I came
here." That's how Ute felt when she arrived on Maui
in 1985, drawn here by a dream depicting the place her daughter, Sarah,
would be born. She still lives in that jungle area of Maui
with no running water and no electricity--"off
the grid," as we say. It is a far different life than her upbringing
in Germany
where she was a dental technician. She left Germany
at age 23 and headed for California
where for four years she studied to be a master silversmith and goldsmith.
While in California, she studied with two
American Indian tribes, and founded a center for native teaching. On Maui, her interest turned to Hawaiian history and
culture, and, being a prolific reader, she reads everything written about
them.
She also learned Hawaiian hula and African
dance, and for five years was a certified movement teacher in the public
schools, teaching dance through the metaphor of Hawaiian mythology.
Ute's
Rave Reviews
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Kahi
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Famous for his huge “dive bomb” splash,
Kahi claims he’s a guide so he can jump off waterfalls every day.
“It’s the adrenaline rush of rushes,” he says.
“People ask me what I love about my job. I say: ‘Look around --
this is my job!’ I love it. Visitors seem intrigued that I’m a
local boy and I also know geology, botany and history.”
Kahi was born on Maui
in a taxi cab on the way to the hospital. He’s number six of ten kids
and he grew up old style Hawaiian. His mom’s house was “24
hours a day full of kids--all the neighborhood kids.” His 360-pound,
6’ 2” grandmother also raised him. “She was one of the
best hula dancers on Maui,” he says.
“She taught me to fish and surf at age four, to hula at age six and
to chant at age 13. My grandparents lived Hawaiian--plantation house, no
TV, kukui nut lamps, chanting when someone came to the door, growing lei
flowers, singing Hawaiian songs.”
Kahi is the father of four and is a
phenomenal self-taught artist and a professional hula dancer.
Kahi's
Rave Reviews
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Trevor
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A Texan by birth, Trevor has worked and
played all over the world. He was a gourmet chef for seven years in the
Caribbean island
of St. Croix where he
had his own catering company. He was a desert naturalist in the American
Southwest based out of the red-rock country of Sedona, Arizona.
After tiring of snowy winters in the the high
desert, he moved to Maui and crewed as a
marine expert on tour boats. He was then hired to develop an off-road jeep
adventure tour in Upcountry Maui ranch land. When 9-11 ended that business,
we snagged him, and he has been happily hiking ever since.
But wait, we forgot--he has also been deep
sea diving in as many major world waters as he could since he was 14. He
has also written two novels (not yet published). And, on Maui,
of course, he surfs with the rest of our guides.
Trevor's
Rave Reviews
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Wayne
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Wayne
is remarkably upbeat, known for his constant good humor and cheery manner.
Ironic and inspiring considering his past. In 1967 his helicopter was shot
down in Cambodia.
After 10 days in a 4 by 4 bamboo cage, he realized he would die there as a
POW, so, he began chewing on the bamboo bars. Took him 23 days, but he
escaped and released 14 other guys. After 21 days wandering in the jungle,
they found a troop of Marines and got out.
"I would have made a career of the
Army," he says. "But, I didn't want to go back to Vietnam.
When I left in March of '68, the morale was going down."
Instead, he had a 25-year career in the
trucking business, in sales and operations, both on the East Coast and in California. He came
to Maui in 1988 and worked in the tour
business for 13 years, driving 2,748 trips to Hana (yes, he counted). We
knew his reputation as a top tour guide, so we got him out of the driver's
seat and hiked him back into the jungle.
Wayne's
Rave Reviews
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Randy
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At seventeen, Randy joined the Air Force to
see the world. Eventually he was stationed in Hawai'i, and fell in love with the
islands. When the Air Force began downsizing, Randy opted for early retirement.
By the time Randy came to us, he was already
a professional guide. He had worked as a downhill bike guide and driven
luxury tour vans on the Hana
Highway. He sought out Hike Maui, he says,
because of its reputation. “It’s the oldest hiking company in
the state with the most knowledgeable guides, and it’s like a family.
I was always hiking on my days off, so I figured, why not get paid to do
what I really like to do?”
Randy is a true professional. He’s
always upbeat, and nothing seems too hard for him. Above all, he likes to
share his love of Maui with visitors.
“Every day I am reminded of the reasons I live here," he says,
"and I enjoy sharing that.”
Randy's
Rave Reviews
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Kristin

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As an Alaskan, Kristin says: "It took me
a while to realize that snapping in the bushes behind me was not large
animals, but falling fruit." Still, she sees similarities in both
states: "Both are unique places. With both there is no other place
like it on Earth. Both have special energy, special people."
In Alaska
she was a veterinarian tech, a dental assistant, a tour guide and a mom.
When son Cory was four, she sold everything to move to Maui
and then she eventually found Hike Maui. "I have so much fun in this
job," she enthuses. "I teach in an outdoor office. I love it when
I inspire someone about nature. And, I've got the best coworkers in the
world. This is a phenomenal group of people to work with. I feel lucky
every day."
Her clients feel the same way about her.
"On a daily basis, someone says I should be on "Survivor"
(the TV show). Because I'm jumping around on rocks, being
athletic, jumping off waterfalls. And we're in the jungle." But nobody
would ever vote Kristin off.
Kristin's Rave Reviews
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Part-Time Guides
We have several part-time guides who work one
to three days a week with us. They balance school, other jobs, raising
children or teaching with hiking. Helga and Marko have been with us more
than a decade.
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Helga
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Helga
arrived on Maui in 1979 with $2 in her
pocket. She had fallen in love with rainforests in South America when she
lived with the Sequoia and Quechuan Indians, so she came to Hawai`i searching
for more rainforest life. Immediately, she began homesteading six acres of
lowland forest on Maui. There, she kept
the jungle back enough to plant nearly 1500 rainforest species from around
the world. She also planted 40 species of fruit trees and hundreds of
flowering plants. Her extensive knowledge of botany comes from these years
of research and personal hard work on the land.
After 13 years, Helga left her jungle
paradise and moved to the old sugar plantation town of Pa`ia where she lives with her young son.
She has worked for us since 1994, which makes her our most senior guide.
Helga's
Rave Reviews
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Ray
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Ray
has always loved adventure. In his “small kid days” (island
lingo), growing up on O`ahu, he led his buddies into the ridges and valleys
of Ko`olau Mountain, bushwhacking, climbing,
exploring and camping. This wild man stuff continued when he grew up and
joined the Army’s 82nd Airborne as a reconnaissance paratrooper
(spending three years jumping out of planes and helicopters).
Then he really grew up: got sensible, got married, had two kids and began
working in hotel management. He kept being promoted until he “burned
out,” he says, “managing too many people, spending too much
time at the hotel and too little time where it really counts--at
home.”
He found the balance he was looking for by
guiding visitors for Hike Maui--adventure and service in one job. “I
can be outdoors and still deal with customers. I like educating people
about our culture and about nature. I like to say I’m saving the
world one van-load at a time.”
Ray's
Rave Reviews
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Marko
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He
calls himself "Marko Polo." He's even listed that way in the
phone book. Marko is an adventurer and a scientist, and has lived in Hawai`i since 1979.
He does service work for the Nature Conservancy and is on the executive
board of the local Sierra Club. With a degree in marine biology from UC
Berkeley, Marko spent seven years teaching high school biology and
environmental science. But the adventurer kept resurfacing to take him
across the globe: crewing for a year around Africa on an oil supply vessel,
exploring Asia, researching plants in the
Amazon. He also worked for seven years as a fire fighter, doing land and
sea rescues.
He was with us full time for years, then needed to go back to his first love -- teaching
science to kids. Often accused of being a big kid himself, Marko will leap
off any and all rocks and waterfalls. He'll let you come out and play with
him on weekends and summers when he returns to us from his school job.
Marko's
Rave Reviews
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Karl

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Count
on enthusiastic, booming-voiced Karl not to take himself seriously.
“My goal was to be a trust-fund baby, but that isn’t working
out, so I’ll settle for being a surf bum,” he says. “It’s
all about fun, celebrating life, and did I mention fun?”
What he does do is teach science to students
with learning disabilities during the week, then, because he loves to hike,
he works weekends and summers with us. “I love science because
scientific investigation and inquiry compels students to think and analyze,
not just regurgitate information. And, I love the kids. I like being a
positive adult relationship in their lives. You have to be consistent,
affirming, enthusiastic. They may not believe in
their own abilities, so you have to help them discover their talents and
abilities, especially learning disabled kids. They need to believe in
themselves.”
His hobby of backpacking and his passion for
the outdoors brought him to Hike Maui. “It’s a natural for me
because I’m interested in history and geology and botany. It’s
a gift to live on Maui and I love to share
that gift.”
Karl's
Rave Reviews
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