Since I used this forum to research options for my move I thought I'd share my experiences in hopes that it would help others.
I moved from Oregon to start a job in Honokaa. I got here about a week ago and got my 2 dogs here, 2 vehicles and a shipping container.
1. Shipping container and vehicles.
We used Kona Container Guy
www.konacontainerguy.com They had several options for container sizes. They had someone local come to the house to give us an idea of what size we would need. We downsized quite a bit so went with a 10x20' container. They drop off the container (still on the trailer) for 5 days at the house and then pick it up after it is loaded. It is then delivered on the other end anywhere on the island. We had it delivered to a storage facility in Kona while we look for a house to buy. Everything arrived in great shape.
We had them ship our 2 trucks as well. My truck arrived 10 days early which was actually very good since it saved me a bunch on a rental car. They pick up the trucks at the house and deliver to a drop off facility in Kona. You can track the ship online as well.
Lauren was very responsive to all the questions we had and we were very happy with the service.
Im sure prices vary by where you are coming from. Form Oregon our total was around $10k
2. Pets.
It is much easier to fly a person with ebola to the USA than get your pets to Hawaii. I would border on saying the requirements to prove your pets dont have rabies is absurd. Given rabies will kill a dog in 10 days, having to wait 120 days after 2 separate vaccines and testing is just a bit wacky.
Anyway, I would recommend planning on more than 6 months to get the process done if you dont want them to be in quarantine. Plan on spending about $1000 per pet. This includes the $400 rabies test that can only be done at one test center in the US and they take their time. Vet visit needs to get done within 10 days of the flight (14 for Hawaii but 10 for the airline) So plan way ahead.
We did a direct release to Kona using Kona Vet service. They were very nice.
www.konavetservice.com/
You can only do a direct to neighboring island release if the flight to the island is direct from the US (cant go to Honolulu first). Alaska has flights that do this and they allow small pets to go into the cabin with you.
More info here
www.konavetservice.com/direlease
3. Renting.
Yes, it is tough to find a rental. I actually had to book few months on airbnb in vacation rentals since there were no month to month rentals up North (except one place that wanted $47,000 a month). Even less that accept pets so my dogs are in boarding for the next month (another $1800). Consider looking for rentals well before your move.
4. Finding a house.
We are using Hawaii Life
www.hawaiilife.com/ Our realtor Mike has been very nice. He has been very helpful with steering us away from homes where the price is way more than what houses would appraise for. We are still looking but it has been a good experience.
Beware the Home Owners Associations. I found the website of one that is in Waimea of a house I was looking at. Luckily they posted their meeting minutes online because seeing how many fines they were giving out, some as high as $13,000, made me drop the idea of living there in an instant.
Since being here everyone has been very friendly, the food has been great, the coqui frogs have a very nice lullaby at night to fall asleep to. The wild goats are suicidal though. I've almost hit 3 when driving just in the past week
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