About Sarah N

Hiking can change your life. Just ask Sarah, who met her future husband during a hike. Well, technically, they met just after she finished a daylong trek through Haleakala’s crater floor with a friend. The pair was hitchhiking from a lower trail to the crater summit to join friends who’d taken a different route, when Sarah’s now-husband offered them a lift. “Sometimes it pays to be spontaneous and explore a different path,” she says with a smile.

That’s exactly the kind of advice that led this Montreal native here. Her first job on Maui was at a permaculture farm, where she discovered her passion for herbalism, and how plants can be used as medicine.

Sarah hatched the idea of becoming a hiking guide after a visit to Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. “We had an amazing naturalist guide who shared some wonderful stories, and that experience had a huge impact on me,” she says. In fact, sharing stories is one of the ways she connects with guests. Some of her favorites include the life of Hawaiian monarch King Kamehameha, and the legend of the demigod Maui who snared the sun and hoisted these islands with his magic fishhook. “There’s something so spellbinding about a good story, and Hawai‘i has a myriad of them.”

Guest quote: Sarah N was great! She looked after our group and made sure we were safe. She’s very knowledgeable, too!