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Some years ago I four times spent 2 months over in the islands.
I worked on 4 of the islands but always based myself out of Hilo. Laid back, clean and friendly.
Honolulu, and especially Waikiki, I hated (crowds of tourists/rip-off restaurants/t-shirt junk shops/traffic/etc.). Perhaps, Adelaide, you might have driven a half hour west to little Waianae (huge, empty beach/mountains/peaceful).
The most difficult aspect for me was the very limited amount of terra firma; you could never, even on the Big Island (except maybe Saddle Road) get out of sight of the ocean.
And one definitely has to have the flexibility to relax into 'Maui time'. Once you do, everything changes....nothing is more important than you...and here...and now. Meeting someone at 2 might mean 2:30 or 3. You either got overwrought. Or you relaxed...drew in the fresh ocean air...and preoccupied yourself with the magicalness of the islands until your friend arrived.
I did photography by appointment. At times 3 or 4 families might all arrive at the same time (1 was early, 1 on time, 2 were late). "Wait a half hour? No problem....take your time...we in no hurry." The more remote the location, it seemed, the nicer the people were. And the more relaxing their lifestyle.
Physically, the most mesmerizing place to which I've ever been. Mentally, the most relaxing (it's like a drug)(it takes a week or two for your mind to slow down).
When going there, for whatever duration, one has to decide what they seek.
Surfing, beaches, people, restaurants, nightlife (Waikiki or Lahaina or Kona)
Or the solemnity and peace and pace of 100 years ago (Naalehu, Honokaa or Kaunakakai).
Beaches??? Who has the time for that when we are too busy working trying to survive the economic crises and the ridiculous cost of living in HI...
she does
Quote:
Originally Posted by aysantanamama
...We had to adjust our way of living alot to make ends meet here after moving from the mainland. We have only 1 car, I take the bus to work, we walk and ride our bikes a lot, don't go out, take very quick showers, make well planned trips to the grocery store, but we also take advantage of the free beauty, just getting some doritos and going to the local beach for the day. There is a price to pay for paradise, and it took me a while to get over the little things like traffic issues, high prices, just the different lifestyle. But I have learned to accept things the way they are here, and enjoy life here while I can. I have fallen a little in love with nearly everyone I have met so far, and a lot in love with the island.
Is Hawaii "A nice place to visit, but you don't want to live there kind of place?"
I dunno, never been to Hawaii. Love to go.
I think my problem would be with living there is not being able to leave except by plane. For example, on the Mainland, I can drive for thousands of miles just within my own country. Oahu for example is only about 50 miles by 30 miles wide. About as large as a U.S. County. I could go to another island in Hawaii, but this requires a boat or a plane and it looks the same. If you want to go to a place that is not Hawaii, this requires an air ticket for several hours, or about a week on a nice slow boat.
Another problem with living there would be the sunshine and the constant warmth. I have very fair skin and can't take the summer sun. I like winter. The 25C/80F and sunny weather every single day would drive me bats. Gimme some snow and lots of rain!
If I may ask, why do they write it Hawai'i now? Whats with the apostrophe between the two letter i's? It can't be how the natives spell it because the natives did not use Romanization. So what's up with that?
It's not that they write it that way now, it's that they wrote it incorrectly for so many years and now do it right.
yes, it's pronounced with a glottal stop between the ai and i.. like Ha Why Eee, but completely finishing saying Why before you start saying the Eee.
i myself have never felt island fever. there is so much to do, see, it's all so different from the next thing. you can drive 10 minutes on the big island and the scenery and things to do entirely change! that's one thing i love about it. and really, there is so much more to do than in a normal mainland city in my opinion. that's the problem with things being spread out; most people do not drive outside of the 20 mile radius of their home and work. how often does anyone drive across the country because they are feeling antsy? i think it's the thought of it and not the action that people like. that's why it doens't bother me!
Senior Boogie, Reivax is right. it's not an apostrophe the way you know it, it is called an Okina and is a glottal stop that's been around in Hawaiian and almost all Polynesian countries for a very long time. For instance the main Hawaiian Islands are written O'ahu (OH-ahhu), Hawai'i (Hawai-ee), Kaua'i (Kaooa-ee) etc.
I think my problem would be with living there is not being able to leave except by plane. For example, on the Mainland, I can drive for thousands of miles just within my own country. Oahu for example is only about 50 miles by 30 miles wide. About as large as a U.S. County. I could go to another island in Hawaii, but this requires a boat or a plane and it looks the same. If you want to go to a place that is not Hawaii, this requires an air ticket for several hours, or about a week on a nice slow boat.
Another problem with living there would be the sunshine and the constant warmth. I have very fair skin and can't take the summer sun. I like winter. The 25C/80F and sunny weather every single day would drive me bats. Gimme some snow and lots of rain!
Good thing you don't want to move to Hawaii. Sounds like you should be living in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Maine, etc... those sound more like your cup of tea.
I waited 10 years to move here, finally made it to Oahu, spent a year in Honolulu, hated it, and now I am leaving in a month, and I just can't wait.
I have had enough of the insane traffic that makes no sense whatsoever -- or rather of the insane road-work that messes up commute on a daily basis
I have had it with the 400 square foot apartment that I rent for 1275 a month
I have had it with the bosses that I have had to wrestel out of a decent paycheck
I have had of the rude attitude of most of the population
I have had it with the ridiculous cost of living
quite frankly, I have not been to the beach in over two months, and I just don't care anymore.
It is quite sad to me that I was not able to adjust to life here in the Hawaiian islands, because I did just fine when I lived in the Carribbean so I just don't get it...
But whatever, right. My leaving will make room for another transplant, and so the circle of life keeps going.
Sounds like you are a little bitter about Oahu. But you have failed to mention what you have done with your time here. Did you do any research prior to moving to Oahu? What type of job field were you in? 425 square foot apartment for $1275 per month?!?!?!!!! Please tell me you looked around the entire island before choosing that place because I know a lot of decent apartments for less money in nice areas on Oahu. Rude attitude? Hmm...Not sure what you mean by that exactly. People are friendly - as long as you treat them with respect. I mean when you decided to move to Oahu, what did you think the cost of living was going to be - low or at average? No no. Oh and I know a lot of locals who don't go to the beach. Just because you live on an island surrounded by water doesn't mean you have to go to the beach everyday or weekend.
Hawaii is a great place to live. There are some hard issues like cost of living, the limits on some types of jobs (your on an island out in the ocean), high housing cost due to everything having to be brought in, and limits on what goods you normally can find anywhere on the mainland that may not be available on Hawaii.
To be sucessful on Hawaii you have to research everything and not make a rash move based on a vacation experience.
Hawaii is still another state so everything you experience on the mainland you will experience on hawaii, just in a different way. take the racial issues, On the mainland the majority of "whites" don't really experience racial issues. They may be the ones dishing it ourt without realizing it. When they come to hawaii, they are now the Mexicans, Arabs, Asians, Hindi's, Africans of the mainland. So if anything (and I mean anything) is even remotely said that has any racial tone, they FREAK OUT! You would not belive how a simple little look of displeasure (just like anyone give each other on the mainland when a person does something that is disliked) and the look has nothing to do with race, will be turned by whites into the racial nuke attack on them.
They will flip out, grab the family and pets and run like the wind to the airport, cursing out Hawaii all the way. Everything they say from there on out will be negative. They will say the water is bad, they will say the air is bad, they will say everything is bad because of the racial assult on them. They will even blame global warming and the economic crisis on racial issues on hawaii with whites.
The whole world is about to collapse because of the hatred for whites.
Truth is, most time its has nothing to do with the race or racial issues. Bet half the times race was never an issue. What happened was the person is just a failure. They failed on hawaii and probably would have failed wherever they were. They just could not make it because they were not set properly to live on Hawaii, Most of the problems was because they didn't propely plan and research the move or they are just plain nothings.
That makes it hard for them to admit they were just plain old failures in life, so they blame something that has nothing to do with them, they blame racial hatred towards whites. The color of their skin isn't something they could control like not making enough money, or having a failed business plan, or living above their means and are running into cash problems, or the idea that they are smarter than locals proved false as smarter locals are getting ahead because of their brains, or they are just unhappy because the vacation they dreamed of all day is not reality.
You will see these people because every post about every subject, they will make about racial problems. Every comment about food will turn into race. Every topic on good suntan lotion will turn into race. Every conversation about a good B&B on one of the other islands will turn into race.
Ignore those people, they are just pissed because they are failures in life and can't admit it so they blame race and want the world to know it wasn't them that were the real failures in life, but some racial whatever.
Well said PF! That is something I feel happens on the mainland too, not whites particularly, but blacks. Everything bad that happens to them is a result of racial prejudice it seems they always say. I see the same with grown children who had difficult childhoods continue to blame their parents for every failure they have had in life. Sometimes a person just has to grow up and stop blaming others for the failures in their own life. It doesn't matter what color of skin you have, some people are just aholes of their own doing.
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I mean when you decided to move to Oahu, what did you think the cost of living was going to be - low or at average? No no. Oh and I know a lot of locals who don't go to the beach. Just because you live on an island surrounded by water doesn't mean you have to go to the beach everyday or weekend. 
