Moving to Big Island-House settlement first week of March (Waimea: real estate, apartment)

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

JustFriday, today's costs won't mean much in four years, but if you want to get some idea just look at either Matson or Pasha (the two big shippers to Hawaii).

There are lots of threads on this forum about whether or not to ship your furniture, etc. to Hawaii. It all depends. Some of us had large pieces, such as beds, that we really liked and so shipped our own stuff over. Others are of the mindset that you should sell it all before moving and buy new when you get here. Especially since most of the houses here are much smaller than what we were used to on the mainland.

[JustFriday]

Dreaming of Hawaii, Thank you for your reply. I'll search forum.
Matt2139, Any information regard to the container's shipping from the East Coast would be greatly appreciated.

[terracore]

Congratulations on the move (and chasing your dreams).



"Also, was curious as to packages in Honokaa. Since there isn't mail delivery where we are living, we were planning on getting a P.O. Box. Do package deliveries come to the post office as well?"


You can get FedEx, UPS, DHL, (basically everybody) delivery at your PO Box. I've posted about it here and elsewhere:



http://www.city-data.com/forum/big-i...ence-help.html

[hotzcatz]

Originally Posted by bolus

"First Fridays" as well - first Friday of the month there are vendors, food and some entertainment on the main avenue.

12:30pm is after lunch package pickup time at the post office. get there early for a parking spot.

There are no pharmacies in Honokaa if you need medication refills, so plan to go to Waimea for those.

I hope you like frogs.

Yup, the post office closes for lunch. So does the hardware store. And a lot of places are closed on Sundays.

We had a pharmacy for awhile, but it turned into a health food store. A lot of medicines can be ordered by mail although the trip to Waimea is pretty short. We usually pop over there for one reason or another once a week or so.

Depending on where you end up in Honokaa, there may be a lot of frogs or hardly any. They're somewhat specific to altitude, too, I think. I'll ask my friend that lives up mountain, I don't think they have very many coqui if you're above a certain altitude. We're down in town so there's frogs. Much fewer in the wintertime when it's colder, if it gets below sixty it's pretty quiet at night.

Also keeping the shrubbery and landscaping down around the house can keep them further away. If you can keep them fifty feet away from the house, they're not as bad as right under your window. They are getting much bigger, though, than they do in Puerto Rico. I'm guessing bigger means louder, too.

[hotzcatz]

Originally Posted by JustFriday

Aloha everyone,
My husband and I are planing to move to the Big Island from Maryland in four years. Matt2139, will you ship container from NY? If yes, what shipping company are you going to use? How much it cost approximately? Does it make any sense to ship furniture, home goods, cars to BI?

Four years is a pretty far timeline to come up with estimates of cost. Considering the distance, it will be expensive to ship almost anything so unless there's a compelling reason to ship instead of replace, you may not want to bring a whole container full of things.

It's a different climate, different lifestyle, different vibe, would it be easier to fit in with all new things? But, do what's comfortable for you, some folks have a lot of stuff they want to hang on to.

Depending on which part of the island you move to, humidity and mildew can be problems for antique furniture and leather stuff.

Generally ocean freight is the least expensive way to move small heavy things. Large light things may be less expensive via air.

[TwoByFour]

Just an FYI on shipping...

We used two methods, PODS and Matson. PODS is super convenient if they cover your area. They don't really work if you are moving to/from a rural area. The large POD held kitchen + dining and living room + 1 bedroom stuff + misc. Cost us about $6000 Seattle to Maui.

Matson holds a lot more, even the small container (which is 20' long). I trust Matson more than POD mostly because the container is steel, and is sealed tight while a POD is wooden. Matson works if you live rural on the west coast. Not sure about east coast. I packed an entire wood shop in it and had no breakage. Cost from eastern WA to Maui was $7000.

[Open-D]

Originally Posted by TwoByFour

Just an FYI on shipping...

We used two methods, PODS and Matson. PODS is super convenient if they cover your area. They don't really work if you are moving to/from a rural area. The large POD held kitchen + dining and living room + 1 bedroom stuff + misc. Cost us about $6000 Seattle to Maui.

Matson holds a lot more, even the small container (which is 20' long). I trust Matson more than POD mostly because the container is steel, and is sealed tight while a POD is wooden. Matson works if you live rural on the west coast. Not sure about east coast. I packed an entire wood shop in it and had no breakage. Cost from eastern WA to Maui was $7000.

Wow. Some quick math.

Matson's largest ships (except the new one) carry about 2800 of the small containers TEU. Multiply that by $7000/container, and a voyage generates about $19.2 Million in revenue. Bunker fuel is about $400/Ton, or $1.25/gallon. That class of vessels burns about 120 tons per hour at 24 kts, or 5 tons (or 1,600 gallons) per miles. For a 3,000 NM voyage that is 4.8 Million Gallons or about $6M compared to $19.2 in revenue.

The brand new Matson vessel cost $210M and carries 3,600 teu (equiv to a 20-foot container.)

[hotzcatz]

Gross revenue would be offset by salaries of workers, salaries of crew, dock rental space, other facility costs, etc., etc. Each ship makes how many trips per year? If the numbers work out really excellent, their stock trades on the New York stock exchange under 'MATX' and pays a dividend, too. Woot! (not that I own any, though)

[TwoByFour]

That $7k for the Matson shipment included trucking at both ends, loading, and container rental. I think the actual cost of the ocean transport was less than $4k. There was a fuel surcharge in there but cannot remember what it was.

Matson worked well for us, but not sure how it would work coming from the east coast. Probably have to use a freight forwarder.

One other thing - I tried to find insurance for the Matson shipment but never could. PODS tried hard to push insurance but the policy was terrible, wouldn't cover lost container, fire, or breakage. Basically none of the things that could go wrong. If you ever get PODS, decline the insurance.

[bolus]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

We had a pharmacy for awhile, but it turned into a health food store. A lot of medicines can be ordered by mail although the trip to Waimea is pretty short. We usually pop over there for one reason or another once a week or so.
.

Longs pharmacy delivers to Honokaa now. Just for the month to month routine meds.

Longs has slipped a bit in quality though since they lost Craig the pharmacist.