Captain Cook question (Hilo, Kailua, Waimea: sale, rental, insurance)

[MoScrilla]

What are the pros and cons to living in Captain Cook? The weather seems great and the housing prices are pretty reasonable, so what are the drawbacks?

[OpenD]

Aloha.

Individual needs and tastes vary, but the first thing that pops up for me about Captain Cook is the vog, which can be intense there. Nice area, not too dense, not a lot of commercial activity, fairly convenient to the Kailu-Kona area where most of the shopping and restaurants are.

Here's the CD profile on the town http://www.city-data.com/city/Captain-Cook-Hawaii.html

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

I just sent you a PM.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by Dreaming of Hawaii

I just sent you a PM.

That just means all the other people who come to read this thread will be left wondering what you had to say that couldn't be shared with everyone...

[hotzcatz]

Other than the vog, it is plagued by the "one road" syndrome. If you want to go anywhere, there is only one road - the Hawaii Belt Highway by whatever name it's going by in that particular area. Mamalahoa Highway, I'd guess. But it's the only road so if there's a wreck, you're not going anywhere for awhile. The "detour" would be several hundred miles long via Saddle Road.

The soil isn't deep but a lot of things will grow on a rocky hillside such as coffee and other tree/shrub type things.

In any case, it's always best to move over to the general area you are interested in and then rent for about six months while you are looking for a house. You'll know in that amount of time if it's an area you'll want to spend more time in. Hawaii Island consists of about four zillion micro-climates and they are tiny so moving several miles one way or another will have big changes in the climate. To find the perfect spot, you pretty much have to be around for awhile. Not that what you find online and buy sight unseen may not be good, but it would be better if you were on island for a bit first so you'd know all the options.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Other than the vog, it is plagued by the "one road" syndrome. If you want to go anywhere, there is only one road - the Hawaii Belt Highway by whatever name it's going by in that particular area. Mamalahoa Highway, I'd guess.

You are correct, as usual... Mamalahoa Highway. Or Belt Highway. Or Highway 11. So maybe it should be called the "one road with three names" syndrome.

If you take that road, by whatever name you choose, south from Captain Cook, then around the southern tip of the island and up the other side through Ka'u District to Puna District, which starts at the Volcano, then north through Puna to South Hilo, then to where it ends by the airport at Kamehameha Avenue. hang a left on Kamehameha and you'll now be on Highway 19. Once you get through Hilo you'll be back on Mamalahoa Highway, aka Belt Highway, but now it is Highway 19.

Looking back at Captain Cook again, heading into North Kona District the highway splits in Keahou, with the name Mamalahoa Highway taking the mauka (side away from the ocean) road, aka Highway 180, and the designation Highway 11 following the makai (side toward the ocean) road. But wait, that leg is also called Mamalahoa Highway. This is one of the places where your GPS navigation system may have a nervous breakdown.

But wait, it gets worse! A little closer to Kailua-Koa the naming gets really crazy for a while, with Highway 11, the Belt Highway, Mamalahoa Highway picking up the additional designation Queen Kaahumanu Highway ("Queen K" to the locals) and then changing to Highway 19 at Palani Road in Kailua-Kona, which designation it keeps up past the Kona Airport and Waikaloa Village and just past Mauna Kea Beach, where it turns to the east and drops the Queen K designation, while gaining two more names - A Mamalahoa Highway (as distinct from the other Mamalahoa Highway, sometimes known as Highway 180, which has kept on truckin', further inland. Then they cross at Waimea, and Highway 19 gets the name Mamalahoa Highway back (and BTW it never lost the Belt Highway name) as it wends its way east to Honokaa and then southeast along the coast on its way down to Hilo for its fateful intersection with itself, and the change in numbering to Highway 11, at the northwest corner of the Hilo Airport.

For all practical purposes it is one long, continuous highway around the Big Island, and for long stretches it is THE highway, as Hotzcatz pointed out, but I guess most accurately we should refer to it as the "one true road with many names."

[KaraBenNemsi]

The geographic spread of 'Captain Cook' is huge.

Housing prices are only low when you include SOUTH SOUTH Kona with Papa Bay, Honomalino, and Milolii with no infrastructure or schools. The northern part is between Honaunau and Kealakekua, and the prices are higher. Much leasehold land there as well which, with new KHS leases, will keep its value, but doesn't boom as fee simple land does (30% sale price sharing with lessor KHS). Broker pages intentionally list Milolii as 'Captain Cook' because based on zip code they can. The road signs indicate that Captain Cook starts at the Napoopoo Junction and ends at mile marker 106 where Honaunau begins.

[pbmaise]

Certainly the view and steep cliffs in Captain Cook have a lot of charm. Just be aware
why those cliffs are there.

Learn the word bathymetric. When you look at the bathymetric map around Hawaii you can see the debris fields that used to be part of Hawaii island. Large chunks of the island have broken off and fell into the ocean. Will another chunk break off during your lifetime or the lifetime of your children? Most likely not.

However and this is a big however. Captain Cook is in the possible path of the next erruption. It is mostly Lava Zone 2. It is not the Zone 2 that is the worry. You can get insurance and Hawaii's volcanoes first do a whole lot of shaking to warn you it is time to flee. No the concern is Captain Cook is on a volcano that is currently not errupting. Over in Puna, residents sleep well because they know their volcano is already errupting. If the volcano is errupting and pressure and flow is over "there" it is less likely over "here".

[Actuator]

I lived in Capt Cook back in 84 ..@ the time the place was riddled with left over hippies ..I had a room @ the Kona Light House Right next door to Taniguchi Market....

[davephan]

I was going to rent a vacation home in the Captain Cook area, but I did not rent there. I did drive through the Captain Cook area, and the VOG seemed pretty intense. The VOG was making my throat sore. I don't know if that is a typical reaction to VOG, but that's how I reacted to it.

The road is very twisty in the Captain Cook area. I don't think I'd care for driving into Kona from the Captain Cook area several times a week to shop in Kona. We stayed in Waikoloa Village, which was about 20 minutes north of Kona. We never noticed any VOG there, but we were only there a week. It was an easy drive into Kona. The drive into Hilo wasn't bad either from Waikoloa Village using the newly improved Saddle road, although it's much farther to Hilo.

If you are still in your working years, you need to be in an area that the commute is a reasonable distance and time.

I think the best way for you to try living there is to visit the Big Island for a week or two and try renting a VRBO home or condo in the area. Granted, that is a very small time period, but you may discover that you like the area, or you can't stand living in that area. If you like it, you could visit again in a different time of the year for a longer time period. If you don't like it, you can try a different part of the island.

It costs a lot of money to stay in short term vacation rental property. But you need to invest the money to help you avoid making a mistake. When you have more confidence in the location decision, you can rent for a longer term. If you jump right in and purchase right away, you could be making a big mistake that might be difficult, time consuming, and costly to reverse.