How Polynesian Adventures survived a months-long disruption following Kilauea blow-up
Hawaii Islands—Tour guide Robert Luing was taking a group through Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on May 4 when fissures in the Halemaumau crater in the volcano’s summit began erupting. He still has video evidence on his phone of what happened next.
“The tourists come running up to me, asking if is this normal?” he said. “I’m like, ‘There are tour guides taking pictures. No. We have never seen anything like this.’”
Around the same time, Luing’s boss, Kris Kindschuh, Hilo Station Manager for Polynesian Adventures, received a call from park officials, saying the popular Big Island tourist attraction was closing indefinitely.
It would be five months before the park reopened. During that time, the company scrambled on many fronts, from coming up with new tours to finding work for staff. Their quick thinking—and Kindschuh’s logistics background—offer lessons for other motorcoach and tour companies who find themselves faced with a natural disaster, from hurricanes and tornadoes to floods.
For months, Kindschuh and his boss, Jamie Barut, vice president of operations, tracked the latest reports about where the lava was flowing, along with the 80,000 earthquakes that resulted from the eruption. They also had to work hard to have any business at all.
Before the volcano erupted, most of the Hilo tours centered around a stop to the dramatic dormant volcano. After, the company known as Poly Ad, had alternative tours in place within a week.
Professional, personal disruption
Fortunately, Kindschuh’s expertise is knowing how to direct equipment and personnel, especially in times of crisis.
He made a career in logistics during his two decades working for UPS in Louisiana, overseeing more than 150 drivers and supervisors, who were responsible for delivering and picking up more than 50,000 packages in a 12-hour period.
“UPS divides time to the hundredths of a minute because 60 seconds isn’t enough,” said Kindschuh, who was hired by Polynesian Adventures when he retired to the Big Island two years ago.
From his UPS days, Kindschuh had plenty of experience working through and around hurricanes and tropical storms. But a volcano is a whole different kind of natural disaster. The major differences were the unpredictability and timeframe.
His personal life was disrupted when lava from a Halemaumau vent, Fissure 8, ran toward the coast in a molten river just two miles from his home. Along with his wife and two youngest children, Kindschuh fled in the family’s motorhome, where they lived for four months before they could return.
In the short term, cruise lines stopped coming to Hilo, worried about the threat of a tsunami triggered by the ongoing earthquakes. Nearly overnight, the company went from taking 1,200 people on daily tours to less than a quarter of that. Interest in seeing the volcano, however, only increased after the eruption.
“They heard in the news everything that was happening so they wanted see some of that action,” Barut said. “But we couldn’t do anything. The park was closed, the fissures were breaking out.”
Finding alternatives
During the park’s closure, the company tried to keep idle tour drivers busy with other assignments between its operation of Hele-On Bus — the Big Island’s mass transit — and at its Kona station, doing tours and driving visitors in town for conventions.
Before the eruption, Poly Ad was sending 16 coaches — that could each hold 50 passengers — per day to see the volcano crater. When the main portion of the park reopened in October, there were new weight limits. As a result, the company had to scale back tours to eight mini-buses daily with a capacity for 24 people each.
Kindschuh had spent much of the previous two years exploring the island with his family on his days off. The newcomer’s perspective helped him put together some quick—and sellable—alternatives such as A Historical Hilo tour and A Best of Hilo tour.
Since he had a commercial driver’s license, he checked new routes himself to make sure the roads were wide enough for a motorcoach, free from overhanging branches that could damage vehicles and had enough room for parking.
On the south side of the island, Polynesian Adventures offered a Grand Big Island tour from Kona that became popular with tourists.
During the ride, they could see what Kindschuh nicknamed the “powdered doughnut landscape” from the volcano ash that covered nearly everything like snow—not the volcano exactly, but something awfully close.
Handling a natural disaster
- Communication is key. Stay in contact with officials directing emergency response so you can update customers and employees about what is next.
- Prepare for the worst. Bring in equipment and vehicles so you are ready to quickly respond to what happens. For example, have generators ready to go before you lose electricity.
- Be flexible. Be ready to come up with new routes and tours if you have to give up traditional ones for a time.
- Partner with competitors. Work together so you can help each other when you are all battling Mother Nature.
- Make safety a priority. That investment you make in training your workforce and emphasizing safety becomes crucial during natural disasters.
Handling a natural disaster
- Communication is key. Stay in contact with officials directing emergency response so you can update customers and employees about what is next.
- Prepare for the worst. Bring in equipment and vehicles so you are ready to quickly respond to what happens. For example, have generators ready to go before you lose electricity.
- Be flexible. Be ready to come up with new routes and tours if you have to give up traditional ones for a time.
- Partner with competitors. Work together so you can help each other when you are all battling Mother Nature.
- Make safety a priority. That investment you make in training your workforce and emphasizing safety becomes crucial during natural disasters.
