The Trip That Changed My Major

From the moment I arrived on Maui, Hawaiʻi felt different from anywhere I had previously experienced. I was captivated by the verdant valleys along the Hāna Highway, the misty summit of Haleakalā, the food, the culture, the landscapes, and the spirit of aloha.

When I returned to South Carolina, I changed my major.

At first, I wanted to become a volcanologist. I wanted to understand the forces that had created the landscapes I had just encountered. Over time, that interest expanded beyond volcanoes to include climate, ecosystems, landforms, and the relationships between people and their environments. I ultimately majored in Physical and Environmental Geography.

Hawaiʻi quickly became more than a destination I loved. It became what I now recognize as a lifelong special interest—something I felt compelled to study, organize, understand, photograph, and share.

Among my fellow Gamecocks, I became known simply as “the Hawaiʻi Guy.”

From Maui Photo Journal to HawaiiGuide

In the fall of 2002, I combined that fascination with my emerging web-development skills and launched MauiGuide.net.

It began as a personal photo journal, similar to a small website I had previously created about Alaska. Before long, it was becoming something more useful: a free online resource where I could share what I had learned and help other travelers plan their own Maui experiences.

As visitors began asking questions about the rest of Hawaiʻi, I realized there was a much larger need. Most travel information at the time came from printed guidebooks or visitor publications that often felt impersonal—and sometimes appeared to serve advertisers more than travelers.

I wanted to create something different: an independent online guide built around careful research, practical guidance, honest recommendations, and a genuine respect for Hawaiʻi.

Research First, Then Fieldwork

When I began expanding the website, Maui was still the only Hawaiian island I had personally visited. That limitation ultimately helped establish one of HawaiiGuide’s defining strengths: I could not depend solely on my own impressions.

During 2002–2004, I spent countless hours in the travel forums and early online communities of the era. I listened to experienced visitors, studied maps and routes, compared firsthand accounts, researched practical details, and helped people work through their travel plans. For several years, I also served as a Maui Destination Expert in TripAdvisor’s traveler forums, answering questions and helping visitors refine their itineraries.

I applied the same research habits I was developing through science and geography: gather information, compare sources, identify patterns, and continually revise my understanding as new evidence became available.

By the time I first arrived on Hawaiʻi’s other major islands, I had already spent years learning about them and helping people plan trips there. Each visit then became fieldwork—an opportunity to verify what I had researched, correct assumptions, fill gaps, and discover what could never be learned from a distance.

HawaiiGuide was never built on the idea that one person had seen or knew everything. It was built on curiosity, transparency, careful synthesis, firsthand exploration, and a willingness to keep learning.

That research-first approach still defines how we work today.

Technology provided the medium. Science provided the method. Geography provided the framework. Hawaiʻi became the lifelong subject.

Over the following months, I created guides for Kauaʻi, the island of Hawaiʻi, and Oʻahu. By the spring of 2003, I had brought them together under Hawaii-Guide.com, establishing a single online resource for travelers seeking practical, independent guidance across the islands.

After several more research trips, I formally incorporated the business in South Carolina in 2005 as the Hawaiian Style Organization.

Turning a Passion into a Career

For the next 12 years, I developed HawaiiGuide alongside a full-time career in the public and private sectors. Early mornings, late nights, weekends, and vacation days were devoted to researching, writing, photographing, designing, and improving the site.

Whenever I could take time away from my regular job, I returned to Hawaiʻi—and nearly every trip became another working expedition for HawaiiGuide. Admittedly, I could have chosen a worse side project.

In 2014, I finally took the leap. I left my position as vice president of operations at a web firm and committed myself to HawaiiGuide full-time.

Walking away from a stable career was both exhilarating and frightening, but it was the right decision. What had begun as a college project was becoming the work of my life.

A Partnership in Life and Business

Hawaiʻi also changed my life in a much more personal way.

In 2011, I married my wife, Victoria, on Kauaʻi beneath the mountains of Hanalei. By then, Hawaiʻi had already been woven into nearly a decade of my story. It felt fitting that it would become part of ours.

Victoria officially joined HawaiiGuide in 2016, bringing her experience in writing, publishing, storytelling, and business development. Her perspective helped strengthen the company and refine how we serve travelers.

What began as one person’s unusual college project had become a family business built around a shared commitment to Hawaiʻi and its visitors.

Honoring the Past, Building What Comes Next

Running an independent travel resource for more than two decades has not always been easy. Algorithm changes, economic downturns, industry upheaval, natural disasters, a global pandemic, and now artificial intelligence (AI) have repeatedly forced us to adapt.

I’ve had the privilege of designing and developing HawaiiGuide through every chapter of its technical life: from static pages, to a heavily customized phpBB forum that became our makeshift CMS in 2004–2005, and then to ExpressionEngine in 2007—thanks, Jason. We stayed with EE through EE6 before pivoting to agentic tools, Git, and Cloudflare. More than two decades later, I’m still building it. What a ride.

But the purpose behind HawaiiGuide has remained remarkably consistent: help people understand Hawaiʻi more deeply, make better travel decisions, and approach the islands with greater awareness and respect.

Today, HawaiiGuide is evolving from a traditional travel guide into HawaiiGuide Intelligence—a connected ecosystem of planning tools, maps, live conditions, audio experiences, and destination knowledge designed to present the islands in real time.

The technology has changed dramatically since that first floppy-disk camera and hand-built website. The method has not.

We research deeply. We listen carefully. We visit repeatedly. We verify what we publish. And we continue learning from the people, landscapes, culture, and communities that make Hawaiʻi unlike anywhere else on Earth.

Hawaiʻi changed our lives. We hope HawaiiGuide helps you experience the islands with greater confidence, curiosity, appreciation, and respect—and perhaps allows Hawaiʻi to change something in you, too.

— John & Victoria Derrick
HawaiiGuide

Into the cradle of Wai'ale'ale

Once-in-a-lifetime adventure...

In 2012, I had the rare opportunity to embark on a journey deep into the heart of Waiʻaleʻale Crater, a place so sacred and remote that few ever reach it. I had asked my guide for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, and he delivered—taking me on an incredibly technical trek to touch the 5-million-year-old exposed rock at the back wall, where the Wailua Headwaters begin. Standing in that ancient, rain-soaked amphitheater—one of the wettest places on Earth—was the most profound experience of my life. While I can’t recommend others attempt it, the moment was a humbling reminder of Hawaii’s raw power and beauty.