KIHEI, Maui >> Douglas Akina remembers when there were dirt roads and no resorts in South Maui and his parents operated a small tavern catering to Navy frogmen who went through underwater demolition training off Charlie Young Beach during World War II. Maui entrepreneurs
thrive by hard
work, giving backKIHEI ENTREPRENEURS
Gary T. Kubota / gkubota@starbulletin.com
"All the ships parked in front of our house," recalled Akina, whose family now operates Akina Aloha Tours Inc. and Akina Bus Service.
The tavern no longer exists, and only some rusted steel bars offshore remain as reminders of the military's former presence in Kihei. But throughout more than a century of changes in the landscape along this coast, the Akina family has survived and thrived as entrepreneurs.
The family businesses not only provide employment for 63 people, but also contribute regularly to the community, from free shuttle service for a carnival at Kamalii Elementary School to free parking and security for vehicles and equipment for a volunteer citizens patrol.
"Their contributions to Citizens on Patrol is very significant," said Community Police Officer Oly Noneza.
Noneza said Citizens on Patrol helps police to maintain a watch on criminal activities in outlying areas of South Maui, and support from the Akinas has helped to make the program a success.
The arid, sandy 14-mile coastal community from Maalaea to Makena has become one of the fastest-growing regions in Hawaii and a Maui visitor destination second only to Kaanapali. It has scores of condominiums and a number of world-class hotels, along with the largest Safeway in Hawaii. Kihei's total population grew a phenomenal 50.8 percent between 1990 and 2000, up to 16,749 people from 11,107, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It is now the 10th-largest city in the state.The Akina family believed in Kihei's future long before the county government developed a major waterline from Wailuku to Makena in the mid-1970s, spurring development.
Starting in the late 1800s, Chinese immigrant Ah Sin Pat, who had married Hawaiian Luka Kalua, slowly acquired more than 100 acres of land in Kihei for as low as a dollar an acre.
One of his sons, Auhana, who changed his last name to Akina (Hawaiian for "of China"), worked at a number of jobs, shearing sheep on the nearby island of Kahoolawe and raising pigs.
Auhana also cut kiawe wood on the family land and carried wagonloads of firewood by mule to sell to residents at the sugar plantations and restaurants in Kahului. He then would carry barrels of fresh water from the camps to his home.
His son Alexander Akina grew up with the same values of hard work and holding on to the land.
Alex drove a taxi on Maui and later operated a school bus service, starting with a banana wagon transporting nine students.
He hired schoolchildren to collect kiawe beans for cattle and pig feed and also started an akule fishing business in 1929, using an airplane to spot schools of fish.
"He was a self-made man," said Sandra Akina, a daughter-in-law.
While many were leaving South Maui to find jobs in Honolulu, Alex paid $25 an acre for 60 acres in Kihei in 1937.
The family started Sea Side Tavern in Kihei, serving hundreds of military servicemen during World War II, and later sold the business, which was renamed Aunty Becky's Tavern.
In 1969, during the start of the tourist boom in Kihei, Alex sold seven acres for $350,000.
Alex's son, Douglas, and his wife, Sandra, bought the school bus business in 1983 and have used some of the land as the office and base yard for their operations, expanding into bus tours and a limousine service.
Their children have gone into business, as well. Douglas works as a mechanic at the bus base yard, and their daughter Cassandra helps in the sales and operations. Their other daughter, Darlene, works with her husband in his refrigeration business.
Sandra Akina, a former schoolteacher and vice principal, said part of their success stems from trying new ventures and looking for ways to make them succeed.
One of the most recent and ambitious ventures has been a shuttle service with six routes traveling in regions of South and West Maui.
"We're eventually going to move to other areas," she said.
Sandra Akina said family members have tried to live by the saying of her father-in-law, Alex, who believed in sharing good fortune: "Always when you catch, give."
Once, during a hukilau outing at Nuu in the mid-1980s, the family made a big catch and encircled 10 tons of akule.
With the help of people in nearby Hana, they eventually caught five tons.
She said people came away with buckets and pillowcases of akule.
They sold the remainder in Kahului.
"Even now, some people still talk about that day," she said.