Moving to Hawaii

In My Humble Opinion
1

Mr. Athena and I are thinking about moving to Kauai to live. We are considering a rental property that is furnished for perhaps a 6-month stay, and then probably buying a place after we get settled into the area.

We want to hear people’s opinions on what it’s like to live there, weather, people and attitudes, costs, moving issues, and other things that relocation might bring upon us.

Athena’s note: The above text was sent to me by Mr. Athena, with instructions to post it on the Straight Dope. It’s news to me. Last I heard, we bought a house in da UP. However, I’m all for hearing opinions on this one.

Hmmm… UP/Hawaii, UP/Hawaii… What to do? What to do?

2

My brother has a place on that island. Mostly hot, rain, hot, rain, hot, rain. You get the idea. One day it rained something like 35" & he found his file cabinet on the beach. Other than that, its kinda remote. Are you going to work there?

3

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! lost my paragraphs!!!

ok, the short story.

beautiful, green, small, only 57,000 people. They may or may not have 1 K-Mart. They didn’t last time I checked but they may have one now.

Economy bad and getting worse. This is nearly a pure tourist economy and tourism is bad now. It will certainly help if you’re rich.

Fruit, grow like crazy in yard, bananas, mangoes, enjoy.

Roads, 1 main road. But since you can only drive around the island, not through it can seem like a nice large place.

Kauai is rural. Chickens EVERYWHERE as there are no mongooses to kill them, and neither can you since it’s illegal. But kind of a cute little artsy place. Kapa’a is nice. You’d want to live there, in Lihue, or around there unless you like very rural settings.

Handy’s brother probably lives on south side. North side is cooler. But it can be very humid, especially if you lose the trades. Very wet, wettest spot in the US, some years wettest in world. But this is what makes the fruit grow.

You may meet celebs. They film a lot of movies there.

Crime, very low. My sister leaves keys in car and stuff like that. I wouldn’t recommend it but then I live in an 800,000 people city.

Attitudes, very nice. Especially once you’ve become part of the scene.

Mainlanders sometimes have issues living on islands. They get very antsy and get ‘rock fever’ in that they feel trapped. But this can be aleviated by realizing that now you just fly everywhere.

Costs look for things to be more expensive. Gas is probably around $2 a gallon and gonna stay that way. Shipping gas in is very expensive and they then got to ship it over from Oahu to Kauai after it’s refined. But electricity bills will be low since you wont need air conditioning, heaters, snow tires, cold weather gear and stuff like that. Oh, you can also get cheap Kona Coffee. Only coffee grown in the US, except for that on the west side of Mauna Loa.

No nude sun bathing on public beaches. But if you find a nice secluded one enjoy. Like the one in 6 days and 7 nights which is reachable only by boat or plane. No way cops will go there or somebody will complain about you.

4

Talked to my wife about it. She had done 3 years at Pearl. She mentioned “rock fever” and also “you’d better like fish” because you would go broke buying meat.

If we could afford it, I think I could talk her into moving there, because the island beaches spoiled her. Rehobeth Beach is just not the same after Hawaii.

5

I tried Honolulu for 2 years. I ended up coming back to the Mainland. Probably what happens to most people. It takes a special person to make the move permanently. Why? Well, for me it was because…Hawaii is not America. It’s Polynesia. Ok don’t get mad I know that Hawaii is a State. But if they made Puerto Rico a State tomorrow would moving to Puerto Rico be the same as moving to, say, Wisconsin? Of course not. Oahu has the greatest climate of anywhere I’ve ever been.

6

I went to Maui twice this year to visit my sister. It was hot all the time. But you can live in the mountainy area where its cooler at night. Tons of sugar cane but they are closing those plants.

From the plane I saw that about 80% of the island was just barren dry lava-ish area. Amazing but there wasn’t any surf those two times I went plus, the beaches are mostly lava & when they took me to a nice sandy beach, I cut myself a few times on huge lava rocks just off shore, sigh.

Nice luaus though :slight_smile:

7

Hawaii transplant, here. Grew up in Kailua and Kaneohe, mostly. I love it. Hawaii’s still home. Nowhere on earth like it.

I had to move away because the economy was terrible and I couldn’t hack the cost of living. I didn’t think I was ever going to be able to buy a home there and it was hard to find steady employment. It’s nothing to work 3 jobs there. People do it all the time. The laws are such that employers tend to hire 2 people to work 19 hours/week than one person to work 40.

If I didn’t have to worry about getting by, though–I’d still be there. I love it.

Never lived on Kauai, but I spent a good deal of time there right after Hurricane Iniki, for a couple of years. It’s breathtakingly beautiful. Wonderful people. Basically it’s country living.

You might try Maui, or the North Shore of Oahu, if Rock Fever gets to you.

8

Have you and Mr. Athena been to Kauai before? If not, I strongly recommend you make a visit out here first. Stay for a week or so. And most importantly, try to look at the island as you would if you were a resident, instead of a tourist.

I live on Oahu, but I visited Kauai a few years ago. It struck me as being very Old Hawaii, sorta like Hilo on the Big Island. It’s beautiful, but there’s a lot it doesn’t have. These places aren’t for everyone.

9

OK, a little more information.

We’ve both been to Kauai, as tourists. I’ve been there twice, for a total of about 12 days. Mr. Athena has been there once, for 6 days.

We both have jobs working over the Internet. We make a fine living. As such, we can live anywhere we want and still make the same amount of money. We’re solidly in the middle in Boulder, CO. In, say, Negaunee MI, we’d be solidly upper class. From what I’ve seen, cost of living in Kauai is slightly above Boulder.

Any other opinions?

10

Just got back from a week’s stay in Waikiki with a side trip to Hawai’i.

My feeling is this: there is a lot of debate as to the future of Hawai’i, given its history. I think there is a love-hate relationship with mainlanders: on the one hand, money is brought in through tourism, on the other hand, I think the feeling is among Hawaiians is that they would be much happier in retaining those tourists dollars for Hawai’i, not the US, if you understand my meaning.

Indeed, there’s no place like it. However, living somewhere is definitely different than vacationing. Renting a place for a while is a good idea.

11

No offense to any who live there, but I would never move back (unless I had enough money to leave at will).

There are pretty much two groups of people on Kauai:

Very rich haoles (I know that Sylvester Stallone has a house there), and

decidedly unrich Hawaiians (ethnic, not state of residence).

There is a general attitude among the Hawaiians about haoles. My feeling of this was strongest on Kauai; it was also my sense that the secessionist movement was stronger on Kauai than on the other big islands. (Remember, this is my perception, so it may not be accurate; but it was what I felt.) This does not mean the people aren’t nice, they absolutely are, but it means you won’t be a “local” for a very long time.

There is not much to do there, though it is almost painfully beautiful. Island fever is an issue, after three months on Oahu, I was going batty. On my first return to the mainland, I rented a car, grabbed a friend and drove 1,000 miles in a straight line (Portland to Tijuana) just because I could. On Oahu, the farthest you can drive is about 70 miles and then you are right back where you started.

As for moving, remember that you will have to send everything by boat, which makes moving a process that lasts several weeks.

Money: If you are making a mainland living, then you probably won’t be worrying about money. Hawaii does have a high cost of living in relation to salaries. Being a service economy (and to some extent and agricultural economy) means that even in good times people aren’t getting paid too much, and the construction boom is over.

Diet: Your diet will change. Everything you eat on the mainland is still available, but that doesn’t really matter. Lot’s of fish, lots of asian influence. Dairy is god-awful expensive, milk will run you almost $5/gallon.

You can’t buy a Christmas tree until the Christmas-tree boat makes port.

Your plan of renting for six months is probably a good one, but I wouldn’t cut off your options back on the mainland (i.e. don’t sell your house until you are sure). I loved everything about Hawaii (except it being 70 degrees in the middle of the night and its size), but it is very different than living on the mainland.

12

I would also suggest that you start reading a newsgroup called soc.culture.hawaii.

My wife is one of the moderators. Read a bit and then ask your questions there. You’ll have a couple thousand residents, former residents, and wannabe residents willing to answer your questions.

13

We have haole friends who moved to Honaunau (Kona coast) when they retired, and now run a bed & breakfast, mac nut and kona coffee farm. It’s a living, but not much more than that. But it is an absolutely beautiful place to live, and they do “live aloha” so the pace doesn’t drive them nuts. Some people can’t stand the slow pace of things in the islands.

Prices are high. Very very high. If you are solidly in the middle in Boulder, you might not like how far your dollar takes you in the islands. My brother lived om Maui, worked as a scuba instructor. There were at least 5 guys living in his apartment at any one time, and if you really wanted to eat, you got a second job waiting tables at Cheesburger in Paradise.

The tourist trade is suffering. That shouldn’t affect your business, but it will affect the local economy, which I believe is slower on Kauai than on any other island. Remember how much civilization you saw on the island in Jurassic Park? That’s it.

If I were you, I might just go for it. After all, you can always move home, but if you don’t do it, you’ll always wonder.

14

Athena, I’ve never been to Hawaii, but I just wanted you to know that I’ve always admired you. You are funny, intelligent, thoughtful, and generous.

My home is always open to you.

Your faithful friend, Lisa

15

*He’s going back to New York
to pack up and let everyone know
this was something that he
should have done such a long time ago.

Still time to start a new life in the palm trees,
no, Billy Clyde wasn’t insane
and if it doesn’t work out, there’ll never be any doubt
that the pleasure was worth all the pain.*

–Jimmy Buffett, of course

Athena, put me in the ‘try it out for six months or a year’ camp.

If you’d like to keep the option of returning to your current house if Kauai doesn’t work out, but paying for two houses during the trial period would be a problem, you could rent the house out to a professor on a one-year contract at the university. (In today’s academic environment, there are always plenty of these.)

Just a thought, which may or may not apply to your situation. Good luck!

16

Wow, Pundit! You’re so nice! I had no idea.

<blushes> someone likes me…

17

If youre flying you might want to try Suntrips. their plane beat the United plane by an hour & cost less than half too. They, suntrips, are really Ryan Air. Although I must say their plane was 6 hours late getting off from SFO. It costs $299 RT if you stay more than 6 days. But $379 if you stay less, odd.

18

Former kama’ania here:

I’m with the ‘try it for a bit’ camp: even though techincally the cost of living isn’t all that much higher than oh, say, the Bay Area, etc., there’s one big differenace. You can’t drive to a cheaper area to stock up on bulk supplies. :frowning:

Also, the attitude you’ll get from the residents greatly depends on the attitude you bring. (Small example: Me and my Mom got called “More Hawai’ian than Haole” by a very staunch supporter/member of the seperatist movement. We’re so white we make Michael Jackson look black again.)

Bonus stuff:
Fresh fruit up the wazoo! (Assuming it’s in season, and subject to the weather patterns.) Mangos, guavas, bananas, avacados, pineapple in the fields [sub]Shhh. Don’t tell Dole that… hides heavy gloves and machete[/sub], lilikoi, star fruit, etc.
Maui sweet onions!
Fresh fish!
Good variety of Asian foods!
Beautiful scenery!
Wonderful people!
Great coffee! (Get the Maui, Kauai, or Molokai stuff. Better than Kona, IMO. Normally less expensive also.)
The great outdoors!
Confusing tourists in Waikiki! (Or anywhere else for that matter.)
Great library system! Check a book out of any branch, return it at any other, even if it’s on another island! (Or at least they did that when I was there.)
Lower cost of car upkeep! (Possibly: see ‘bad stuff’ below.)

Bad stuff:
Fresh fruit up the wazoo! In a ‘good’ year, think about the sterotype of growing zucini. Urf. insert green sick face here
High cost of living! (Yes, $5 for a gallon of milk as mentioned above is true. Expect to pay at least $7 a box (small one) for cereal.)
Lower cost of car upkeep, because there’s nowhere to drive! (Well, yes, gas is expensive, but since you can’t drive all that far to begin with…)
In order to visit somewhere, you’re going to need to fly! (However, Aloha Airlines (or is it Hawai’ian) periodically sells books of 6 tickets for a really good price.)
Every single friend (of a friend of a friend) and relatives you never knew about will come out of the woodwork, expecting to stay with you when they make a trip to the Islands!

I’ll leave the chatter about the state of Hawai’i’s economy (or lack thereof) to those who know more about it’s current state.

<< An error? Impossible! My modem is error correcting! >>

19

I dunno about Kauai, but on Oahu we have a couple Costcos and a Sam’s Club, with another Costco opening up. I wouldn’t be surprised if Costcos start opening up on the neighbor islands.

Yup, still true. You can get interlibrary loans from off island libraries as well (though it takes an extra couple days).

Actually, milk is just a tad above $4/gallon, and cereal is about $1-$2 more than you’d pay in a Los Angeles supermarket (about $4-$5/box for most cereals).*

Regarding gas prices, it’s about $1.95 for the middle grade (89 octane, IIRC), with the lowest grade being about $1.86 or so.*

I’m not sure about the books of tickets, but a promotional round island fare can go as low as $40 for a round trip ticket.

As for the economy, it sucks right now. Which is good for consumers in HI. For tourists, there are special coupon books (or a card, I’m not quite sure) that are offering promotional rates for all kinds of stuff. For residents (who already get decent kama’aina rates at lots of places) something similar is in the works, though it probably won’t be finalized for another two or three weeks.

*These are Oahu prices, YMMV.

20

Maui has a Sears, a Costco, a Kmart, etc. Their prices (costco at least) were the same as in the states when I compared them.