A Friend in the Islands
It is our pleasure to share our love and knowledge of the Hawaiian Islands as well as products from Hawaii with you!
WHO ARE WE AND HOW DID WE GET TO HAWAII?
Aloha, we are Mike and Kim Crinella. We have been taken in by Hawaii’s unique history, people, and environment since we visited the islands on our honeymoon in June 1989. We made the 6,000 mile move from Massachusetts to Oahu in April 1993 and immediately took advantage of our new surroundings by becoming avid hikers and snorkelers. In the beginning we found exploring the unique marine and rainforest environments fascinating but we wanted to know more about what we were looking at. What started off as a facination has turned into a business we absolutely love. We love sharing our knowledge and passion for Hawaii with others through our web sites alohafriendsphotos.com, alohafriendsluau.com, and alohafriendshawaii.com. Our island gift shop at alohafriendsshop.com is a family run business and we sincerly enjoy being able to assist others in enjoying treats and treasures from the Hawaiian Islands.
HOW DID WE LEARN ABOUT HAWAII’S UNIQUE MARINE ENVIRONMENT?
In 1/94 Kim began volunteering weekly at the Waikiki Aquarium, and Mike in 1/97. The Aquarium has a great training course to use as foundation on Hawaii’s marine environment. To get to the intermediate and advanced level of knowledge we observe and research creatures we encounter as well as attend enrichment seminars at the Aquarium. We like to learn what a creatures role in the environment is, what does it eat, how does it protect itself, and if it eaten by humans. We really enjoy helping people better understand Hawaii’s amazing marine environment and hope we give them the knowledge to be a better reef visitor.
HOW DID WE LEARN ABOUT HAWAII’S UNIQUE TROPICAL AGRICULTURE?
Among his many talents Mike is professional artist and created all the graphics on our site. Mike is also knowledgeable about the unique tropical flora and fauna found in Hawaii greatly enriches our hikes and our journeys around the islands. We both have a love of Hawaii's diverse agriculture and enjoy photographing the beautiful flora and fauna that we discover on our adventures. We try to continuously expand our knowledge of our surroundings by researching what we photograph. Our Hawaii Photo Gallery is filled with hundreds of photographs taken by us around the Hawaiian Islands of scenery, flowers, fruits, plants, people, insects, and animals. Our Hawaii Photo Gallery is free to use and is a great way to enjoy a mental vacation to the Hawaiian Islands.
HOW DID WE LEARN ABOUT HAWAII’S CULTURAL AND NATURAL HISTORY?
Since our move to the islands we have enjoyed learning about Hawaii's history through books, people we meet, and visiting historical sites around all the islands. In 1998 we enrolled in the State of Hawaii Tour Guide Certification course at Kapiolani Community College. This course covered Hawaii’s unique cultural and natural history. Our studies covered from the time the first island was formed to modern times. We found it so enlightening to understand why places were given a certain name, what Hawaii was like prior to human arrival, what life was like for ancient Hawaiians, the history of the Royal Family, and lots of other interesting information. At the end of the course we had to pass a 100-question exam to gain our certification. We both passed with flying colors, Kim scored a 96 and Mike scored a 94 ½. We really enjoyed this class and found the information we learned useful immediately in our contacts with people while volunteering weekly at the Waikiki Aquarium.
HOW DID WE START OFFERING ACTIVITY SUGGESTIONS?
When we first moved to the islands we picked up several of the free activity booklets found around Waikiki and created a list of fun things to do on Oahu. We used this list to send to friends and family who came out for a visit. They would review the activities available, including price, and select the ones that meet their interests and fit in their budget. They would tell us their wish list of activities and we would schedule the adventures. Since we are familiar with where things are located, how long it takes to do activities, and the hours of operation we were able to make an efficient schedule fitting in as many of their wish list items as humanly possible to ensure they didn’t miss a thing. Once they arrived in Oahu they didn’t have anything to stress over, they just relaxed and enjoyed their vacations. Every one of our friends and family commented that their Hawaiian vacation was their best vacation ever because it was filled with everything they wanted to do yet was still relaxing. What they enjoyed the most was going on hikes, snorkeling, and doing things they didn’t think they would do if they had come on their own. We were able to enrich our adventures with our visitors by sharing lots of interesting island information relating to what we were experiencing. They all told us we should go into business doing for tourists what we did for them. In 2/98 we placed notices on 2 travel bulletin board sites on the Internet offering free activity suggestions for Hawaii and offering to answer specific questions about the islands. In 1998 we assisted over 100 visitors with planning their dream vacations to Hawaii.
WHERE DO WE GET OUR ACTIVITY SUGGESTIONS?
We use our experiences, activity advertisement booklets, the phone book, leaflets, visitors, locals, and the Internet to track down fun and exciting things to do on each island. As our activity suggestion research progressed we used our experience with the people we provided suggestions to in assisting us in fine tuning how to present the information. We have contacted each activity provider to find out more about what would be experienced on their activity, the price, and how long it takes and use this to provide detailed information listings. We also provide information and directions to places to hike, snorkel, and enjoy botanical gardens. We want to provide visitors with as much options as possible because there are so many possibilities and you never know what someone’s idea of fun is. Our goal is to help visitors prepare for their vacation to Hawaii prior to arriving, so once they get here, they can make the most of every minute. This will hopefully eliminate anyone from going home saying they wish they had done something or that there was nothing to do. We try to find unusual things to do, like hiking lava caves on Maui or hikes to waterfalls, so people have options they may not have considered if they did not hear of our service. By helping visitors see there are so many ways to explore each island and that each island is different and has it’s own unique qualities we hope people will make Hawaii a place they would want to keep returning to visit. We encourage people to return to the islands on future vacations to continue to explore its amazing wonders. We are not affiliated with any activity provider and do not make any money from our suggestions.
WHAT CAN A FRIEND IN THE ISLANDS DO FOR YOU?
Our business is called "A Friend in the Islands". We basically want you to think of us as your friend who lives in Hawaii. Anything you would ask of a friend we want you to look to us for. We began offering our activity suggestions free on line February 1999. This allows you easy access to the latest activity suggestions 24 hours a day to help you plan your vacation. We decided to start a Hawaii photo gallery to give people a way to enjoy a mental vacation to the Hawaiian Islands and gain a better understanding of the many amazing people, places, flowers, and creatures in Hawaii. We also put anything found in the islands just an email away with our Island Treasures service. We will feature a variety of products of Hawaii as well as take special requests, so if it is found in Hawaii we will see if we can find it for you!
WHY IS OUR WEB SITE SPREAD OUT OVER 5 WEB SITES?
We are constantly adding new products, photos, information and activitity suggestions to our web site and sine 1999 our web site grew to over 400 web pages and receives nearly a million hits a month. In order to ensure the site operated efficiently we broke our web pages into 5 web sites:
alohafriends.com - has our main home page and was the home to our Island Gift Shop prior to our new improved shopping cart program.
alohafriendsshop.com - has our new improved secure shopping cart with search capibility.
alohafriendshawaii.com - has our Island Specific Activity Suggestions, Hawaii Travel Tips, and Hawaii related information and resources web pages
alohafriendsluau.com - has our resources for hosting a Luau or creating a Hawaii theme wedding anywhere
alohafriendsphotos.com - features hundreds of photographs taken around the Hawaiian Islands of scenery, flowers, fruits, plants, people, insects, and animals.
The web sites are all still owned and operated by us and are connected by links within each site.
We understand the perspective of a visitor to Hawaii and want to make your dreams come true and give you memories to last a lifetime. We LOVE Hawaii and wish for everyone to experience the amazing people-places-and activities that are found only in the Hawaiian Islands, even if only for a few days or weeks out of your life. Aloha~ Mike & Kim
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