oh boy. i might not be the best person to ask since we moved to maui for a job and left a year later.
first off, the cost of living is HUGE!!!! we spent $1000 per month on food for two adults and one toddler. most all organic and super healthy but still. our rent was $1600 for a bali house that had a loft and one big lower area with kitchen and that was not outrageous. maybe 750 sqaure feet? of the grid so we could not use haardly any power or we'd drain the batteries.
clothing, i hardly ever pulled out my sweatshirt and i never wore anything longer than capris. we lived on the wet side of the island too. i would ditch most everythign with full sleeves or legs, it's just too hot.
travel- aloha airlines is your best bet. i priced everything i could find and they were always cheaper. island hopping isn't terribly much but it's not cheap. there was supposed to be a super ferry going in when we left that would allow you to take the boat from island to island.
holistic medicine- there were tons on maui.
food- it really is that much more. you can buy local avos (i still miss the dark round ones, so creamy and yummy) apple bananas, mangos, pineapple, eggfruit (yuck), papaya, and pineapple. i was able to get in on a garden share from a local organic farmer too. fish is awesome there. really awesome. raw is awesome too, lots of hippies mean lots of raw foodies. watch out for the chocolate avocado pudding.... lots of times folks use really ripe avos and it tastes yucky.
however!! no local oranges, apples, grapes, pears, plums, blueberries, strawberries or anything not tropical. it got really old paying $8 for a small bag of grapes that were kind of old but all they had.
homeschooling- tons of resources on maui, i'm not sure about oahu, i know it's a bigger city type place so it might be different.
shipping stuff- don't ship any furniture or anything, we spent probably $1800 to ship and that was for three pallets. people leave the island all the time so there are always moving sales and you can buy stuff there. seriously. this was one of the biggest mistakes we made. if you HAVE to ship stuff find out about renting a shipping container. check horizon lines or matson, horizon was cheaper for us. we found someone on craigslist to split a container with us going back to the mainland and saved a TON of money.
your car- it depends. we brought our subaru and truck to maui and we returned with only the truck because we couldnt' afford to ship them both. about $1000 each way per vehicle. i'd say maybe if you are attached adn your suburban is in great shape. again, people leave a lot so there are often cars for sale there.
work- you will probably not be able to get a job. i just talked to a friend still on maui and she said that the help wanted ads in the paper are down to about 10-15 listings tops. she applied for a care-taking job and had 65 other people apply too. lots of native families work two or three jobs to try and make ends meet.
pet info- i moved with my dog and cat and it can be done, but you need to start now! depending on your records your pets will need a lot of rabies vaxes, if you google state of hawaii and pets you can find the state website that has a huge checklist for what you need to have done and how many days apart it must be. you can test out of quarentine by having all the vaxes done at the right time.
hawaii is extremely kid friendly. they love the keiki!! we did a native hawaiian parent participation pre-school that was awesome.
bugs- the centipedes will creep you out. seriously, they are bad. like six inches and they can crawl upside down on the ceiling and you can not keep them out. you have to check your bed every night because they can get in anywhere. and it hurts when they bite you. i used to dream about them crawling on me, it's almost three years later and i still thank god there are no centipedes on the mainland. and the mosquitos are huge and silent. at least there are no snakes yet.
google "hawaiian centipede picture" and you'll see why.
honestly? the hardest part for us was being haoles. we did not belong there and the bottom line is white people took those islands not so long ago. it's really sad to see the local people living in their grandma's house with their kids because tourists have driven up the prices of an apartment rental so much that they can NEVER afford to move out. it's not just a matter of saving their money or getting better jobs... when you have to work two jobs just to pay your bills life sucks. the guy that took our money at the airport parking lot told us it was one of three jobs for him.
and when your beach is covered in huge multi-million dollar homes that people use one month a year you start to get a little resentful. i spent a lot of time wanting to walk around and say, "i get it!! and i'm not one of those white people!!"
crystal meth is HUGE! for good reasons. lots of poverty and not lots of opportunity = drugs and the crime associated with it. ice is an epidemic there that isn't talked about a lot because of the tourists.
also, because the islands are in the middle of the ocean the currents are really powerful lots of tourist rescues. and shark attacks, in the year we lived on maui there were three attacks and one was fatal. the whales are beautiful though. you get to see mamas and babies it's like some national geographic movie.
if you love in florida i've heard the weather is the same-ish. humid and intense sun. like i could feel myself start to burn in five minutes.
i guess i have kind of a negative view because we lost a lot of money moving back and forth. we thought because we were making so much more that it would be wonderful... but even double our income left us treading water. i would think about it long and hard before you move. oh, and don't forget island fever. it happens and it's not pretty.
first off, the cost of living is HUGE!!!! we spent $1000 per month on food for two adults and one toddler. most all organic and super healthy but still. our rent was $1600 for a bali house that had a loft and one big lower area with kitchen and that was not outrageous. maybe 750 sqaure feet? of the grid so we could not use haardly any power or we'd drain the batteries.
clothing, i hardly ever pulled out my sweatshirt and i never wore anything longer than capris. we lived on the wet side of the island too. i would ditch most everythign with full sleeves or legs, it's just too hot.
travel- aloha airlines is your best bet. i priced everything i could find and they were always cheaper. island hopping isn't terribly much but it's not cheap. there was supposed to be a super ferry going in when we left that would allow you to take the boat from island to island.
holistic medicine- there were tons on maui.
food- it really is that much more. you can buy local avos (i still miss the dark round ones, so creamy and yummy) apple bananas, mangos, pineapple, eggfruit (yuck), papaya, and pineapple. i was able to get in on a garden share from a local organic farmer too. fish is awesome there. really awesome. raw is awesome too, lots of hippies mean lots of raw foodies. watch out for the chocolate avocado pudding.... lots of times folks use really ripe avos and it tastes yucky.
however!! no local oranges, apples, grapes, pears, plums, blueberries, strawberries or anything not tropical. it got really old paying $8 for a small bag of grapes that were kind of old but all they had.
homeschooling- tons of resources on maui, i'm not sure about oahu, i know it's a bigger city type place so it might be different.
shipping stuff- don't ship any furniture or anything, we spent probably $1800 to ship and that was for three pallets. people leave the island all the time so there are always moving sales and you can buy stuff there. seriously. this was one of the biggest mistakes we made. if you HAVE to ship stuff find out about renting a shipping container. check horizon lines or matson, horizon was cheaper for us. we found someone on craigslist to split a container with us going back to the mainland and saved a TON of money.
your car- it depends. we brought our subaru and truck to maui and we returned with only the truck because we couldnt' afford to ship them both. about $1000 each way per vehicle. i'd say maybe if you are attached adn your suburban is in great shape. again, people leave a lot so there are often cars for sale there.
work- you will probably not be able to get a job. i just talked to a friend still on maui and she said that the help wanted ads in the paper are down to about 10-15 listings tops. she applied for a care-taking job and had 65 other people apply too. lots of native families work two or three jobs to try and make ends meet.
pet info- i moved with my dog and cat and it can be done, but you need to start now! depending on your records your pets will need a lot of rabies vaxes, if you google state of hawaii and pets you can find the state website that has a huge checklist for what you need to have done and how many days apart it must be. you can test out of quarentine by having all the vaxes done at the right time.
hawaii is extremely kid friendly. they love the keiki!! we did a native hawaiian parent participation pre-school that was awesome.
bugs- the centipedes will creep you out. seriously, they are bad. like six inches and they can crawl upside down on the ceiling and you can not keep them out. you have to check your bed every night because they can get in anywhere. and it hurts when they bite you. i used to dream about them crawling on me, it's almost three years later and i still thank god there are no centipedes on the mainland. and the mosquitos are huge and silent. at least there are no snakes yet.
google "hawaiian centipede picture" and you'll see why.
honestly? the hardest part for us was being haoles. we did not belong there and the bottom line is white people took those islands not so long ago. it's really sad to see the local people living in their grandma's house with their kids because tourists have driven up the prices of an apartment rental so much that they can NEVER afford to move out. it's not just a matter of saving their money or getting better jobs... when you have to work two jobs just to pay your bills life sucks. the guy that took our money at the airport parking lot told us it was one of three jobs for him.
and when your beach is covered in huge multi-million dollar homes that people use one month a year you start to get a little resentful. i spent a lot of time wanting to walk around and say, "i get it!! and i'm not one of those white people!!"
crystal meth is HUGE! for good reasons. lots of poverty and not lots of opportunity = drugs and the crime associated with it. ice is an epidemic there that isn't talked about a lot because of the tourists.
also, because the islands are in the middle of the ocean the currents are really powerful lots of tourist rescues. and shark attacks, in the year we lived on maui there were three attacks and one was fatal. the whales are beautiful though. you get to see mamas and babies it's like some national geographic movie.
if you love in florida i've heard the weather is the same-ish. humid and intense sun. like i could feel myself start to burn in five minutes.
i guess i have kind of a negative view because we lost a lot of money moving back and forth. we thought because we were making so much more that it would be wonderful... but even double our income left us treading water. i would think about it long and hard before you move. oh, and don't forget island fever. it happens and it's not pretty.
