Business Monday: Native Hawaiian van tour operator adds regular stop in Kaʻū to help after Hurricane Lala

After Hurricane Lala hit on Aug. 15, devastating the Ka‘ū District, ʻOhana Tours owner Miexia Ah Loy rerouted the circle-island adventure to give the hard-hit areas time to recover.

Several weeks later, in late September, the company returned to its normal route after roads to rural Ka‘ū were repaired, and the Hawai‘i County Civil Defense Agency announced they were open to the public.

But the 52-year-old Ah Loy decided to add a regular stop for its 15-passenger van: Paradise Meadows Farm on South Point Road. The farm offers honey, mac nuts, coffee and tours around the property.

“They’re great people. It’s a great location,” Ah Loy said. “You have a great experience. It’s very, very grassroots. It’s not super commercialized. It’s got this real homey feel.”

Lili Rodriguez, marketing director at Paradise Meadows Farm, said the farm was unreachable by visitors after Lala due to downed trees that blocked the roads, and damaged homes and utilities.

“Our business is driven by introducing products and our farm to visitors so that they can taste all of our products,” Rodriguez said. “Then when they go home, they’ll want to order them and keep ordering them. But they have to get here to do that.”

While ‘Ohana Tours occasionally stopped at the farm before Lala, Rodriguez said the tour van now stops regularly, bringing business that helps “immeasurably.”

Ah Loy, who is Native Hawaiian, wanted to help the community.

He served in the U.S. Air Force for 22 years, and worked as an instructor in Alabama, where he trained 250 to 300 young officers.

“That fueled my passion for just people from different cultures and places,” Ah Loy said.

When he returned to the Big Island after retiring from the military, he worked as a police officer in Kona.

But after less than two years, he left due to the high stress. He was searching for different jobs, but landed on opening a tour business.

“I’ve always welcomed my friends and family from the mainland and from around the world and showed them the island,” he said, adding, “Maybe I could turn this into a business.”

After doing some research, he learned most companies on the island are owned by people who are not from Hawai‘i, or even from America.

“They’re from China or Persia or Europe, but they moved to Hawai‘i and they’ve got that entrepreneurial business mindset,” Ah Loy said. “I wanted to be a Native Hawaiian in this business. Very few native Hawaiians are doing the tour company business.”

While Ah Loy said he thinks those tour companies do an amazing job, he saw an opportunity for a Hawaiian-owned local boy to crawl through the woodwork and start a vibrant new company to compete with them and also put out a good product.

Three years ago, Ah Loy partnered with his brother-in-law Leon Fabricius and Evan Teshima, a new friend they met at church, to start ʻOhana Tours. The company recently purchased a second 15-passenger van that will allow them to run two tours a day.

Ah Loy anticipates starting the second tour this week, depending upon if they have enough business.

“Last week we had a good week, four van trips full of eight people,” Ah Loy said on Thursday. “We had 32 guests. If you’re doing at least eight per tour out of a van, that’s pretty good numbers.”

For Paradise Meadows Farm, the owners are still dealing with holes in the roof and plumbing issues caused by Lala.

“We still have lots of repair work that needs to be done,” Rodriguez said. “Fortunately for us, a lot of it is not necessarily consumer-visible.”

Rodriguez said tourism traffic also has slowed due to other issues, including skyrocketing gas prices.

“Room rates have gone up, and so what people are doing now is they come and they go to a resort and they never leave,” she said. “Without these tour companies bringing people to us, we’d be out of business.”

Rodriguez said ‘Ohana Tours isn’t the only touring company that stops at the farm, but “they’re a wonderful partner for us.”

Ah Loy said a lot of people don’t rent cars anymore when traveling so doing a tour is a good alternate way to really see the island.

“Maybe they don’t drive. Maybe it’s financial. Maybe it’s the parking fee; they just don’t drive,” he said. “So, they’ll come to Hawai‘i, check into the hotel and they’ll just Uber.”

With ‘Ohana Tours, guests get to see every part of the Big Island, from the dry side to the wet side, from north, south, east to west.

“They get to experience Hilo and Puna and Ka‘ū and Kona and Waimea,” Ah Loy said. “I tell stories about each geographical area, wherever I am. I try to fit as many stories about that area as I can, so by the end of the day, they have this kind of tapestry of the entire Big Island.”

As Ah Loy has returned to the normal route around the Island, he said it was important to make sure they were doing it in a way that respected the Ka‘ū community.

Ah Loy thinks bringing guests back through Ka‘ū after Lala has helped the community by showing visitors the solidarity, strength and grit of the people that’s evident as they drive by.

Ah Loy said when the first returned in September, they often saw people working on clearing the property at the Punalu‘u Bake Shop after it was buried in mud and debris. During one of their visits, they saw volunteers handing out food.

Ah Loy said driving through Ka‘ū provides opportunities to tell and share stories that bring that area to light and impress upon visitors the importance and integration of the island’s communities.

“We’re not interdependent,” Ah Loy said. “We’re dependent on each other, and I think that’s what I feel is most important: them seeing that and coming away with that appreciation that we’re one big family.”

He added: “I wanted them to know that the money that they’re spending on this island, some of that money is going to find its way into the rebuilding of that place, because it’s all interconnected.”

Ah Loy said one guest donated $500 to help in Lala recovery, which he used to purchase supplies at Costco and deliver to the community.

After the farm, Ah Loy brings guests through Wai‘ōhinu and down to Punalu‘u Black Sand Beach.

“We’re only there for 10, 15 minutes,” Ah Loy said. “We’re there just to see black sand. Most of them have never seen a black sand beach in their life, so they really understand how special that is.”

‘Ohana Tours’ most popular offering is the circle-island tour, costing $245 per person. The ride starts with a stop in South Kona Bay View Coffee Farms and takes guests around the island where they stop in South Point, Punalu‘u and have lunch in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.

The tour continues into Hilo where guests can get a sweet treat at Big Island Candies and see Rainbow Falls and ‘Akaka Falls.

The tour company also offers a private tour for groups for $3,200, which is customizable.

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