Our experiences so far....
My husband and I landed on Maui one month ago yesterday.
The island is beautiful and I love the weather. Being a very cold natured person, the temperature is absolutely perfect IMO. I love that I can wear tank tops and shorts every day. We haven't experienced much rain since we've been here, and the rain that we do get is more like a light mist. The sky is consistently blue with perfect white clouds and our windows are always open. The ocean here is the most beautiful water I have ever seen. It is crystal clear and the most wonderful blue. There is always something to do, and I feel guilty if I don't do something outside everyday.
We found our apartment/condo through mauinews.com and signed a 6 month lease sight-unseen. We did do a pretty good bit of research about the area and the condos where we live, and we are pretty happy with our choice. I do recommend going with a short-term lease (1-2 months) until you decide exactly where you want to live on the island. But for us, we are close to work and the condo suits us just fine.
We did not have to put a deposit down on our electric because we had our previous electric company fax them a good referal letter. Otherwise, the electric deposit would have been a couple hundred dollars. Our car insurance went up by about $10 a month (mitsubishi eclipse). All our other bills are covered in the rent or haven't changed (cell phone, car, etc.).
The prices are a bit of a shock, but nothing we can't handle. The biggest difference is the price of rent. We moved from TN where we were paying $680 a month for a 2br/2ba apartment and now we are paying $1450 for a 2br/1ba condo. Granted, our condo is furnished, which is very nice. Food prices are a little bit higher. My husband and I spend about $140 a week (we used to spend about $100 a week) at Costco and the local grocery, but I'm hoping that will start going down now that we've gotten some staples out of the way. $140 a week seems like a lot, but you should know that my husband eats like a bodybuilder (which is about twice what any normal person should eat and includes lots of steaks, chicken, and pork chops).
We shipped our car with Pasha Hawaii. It was $975 and the car arrived in perfect condition! Not an extra scratch on it. It was a little bit of a hassle to deal with their schedule, but we survived it. Since they only have one boat, they only have one schedule, and if that one boat gets behind, the schedule gets changed forever. So, you have to keep an eye on the schedule. When the schedule did get changed Pasha did not charge us anything to drop the car off early. They just held our car for a week before it shipped. And true to their word, the car arrived when they said it would (all-be-it, a week later than when we first scheduled it for). So, other than having to pay for a rental car for an extra week, Pasha was great to deal with. Very nice, very friendly, very helpful.
Just for reference. If you don't want to pay a fee, you have to register your car within 10 days of picking it up. But before you can register it, you will have to have a safety inspection. Our first try at a safety inspection revealed that our windows are tinted too dark and the inspector told us that we would have to either take a rasor-blade and scrape off the tint or take it to a car shop and have them take the tint off. I decided to get a second opinion and asked a friend for the name of another inspector. He said my windows were just fine.
But I had to pay for both inspections. So, for future reference, ask around for the name of an inspector first. It will save you $20 and a headache.
From the time we started our move to our first paycheck in HI, we spent more than $8000.
Some of our expenses include:
Ship car....$975
Plane tickets (2) from CA... $550
Cross Country Drive... $600
Condo (2 months rent, 1 deposit)... $3400
food/gas.... $600
shipping (clothes, pictures, etc.) with USPS... $600
rental car... $850
1st month's bills (phone, electric, car, etc.)... $400
Finally, our experiences here have been good. We like it here. Please don't tell me that I need to leave. But we haven't been overwhelmed with "Aloha". The way I see it, we've lived aloha all our lives. Only, we've always called it "Southern Hospitality". I think we were partly disappointed when we arrived because we had this great idea of what "aloha" was, but it really wasn't any different that what we were used to. It has nothing to do with being treated badly or "haole hate", it just didn't seem as grand as what everyone made it out to be. My reason for saying this is because what you experience in Hawaii comes not only from what is here but also from what you bring with you. Hawaii may be dramatically different from what you are used to, or it may be very similar (and for those who say that island life is nothing like the mainland, you need to visit East Tennessee). It is good to be prepared, but when you come, my best advice is *leave your expectations and your vision of Hawaii on the mainland*. Just come with an open mind. Let yourself be pleasantly surprised by what the islands have to offer.
Southern Aloha to you all!!!
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1 month and 1 day on Maui
Thanks for the post...
We are moving there from Alaska for my husbands wk, we struggle hard here (he is in construction and the winters are long) there he will be able to wk year round! So it wld kill me to see one of my kids come home all beat up, because we are there to try to a live better life!!
Moving to Maui
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