Honolulu for a year-should we do it?

[kakers]

Originally Posted by Bebe Kiddington

Basically THIS.
...and, there is also the level 5 hurricanes that you may have to deal with adding even more drama to your life.
But, now you are stuck on an island and cant just get out of the way like you can in Florida. So there is that.

Says someone who never made it to Hawaii, and obviously has listened to some sort of exaggerated stories about hurricanes here. Even with the most active season in ages we didn't get hit by a single storm this year. Cat 5? Um, no. There's NEVER in the history of recorded storms in Hawaii been a Cat 5 to hit or even pass close by any of the islands. A cat 4 hit once, that was devastating to Kauai. But it is very rare. Again, it happened once. We may have nowhere to go, but there's a lot of geological/meteorological features that tend to keep the storms just far enough away. We certainly don't get hit like Florida.


OP- as long as your housing would be dog friendly, Hawaii is great for dogs. It can for some people be tricky finding a rental with a dog (especially when it's not a small dog) but that sounds like it will be covered as a stipulation of the position being accepted. Plenty of dog friendly hikes and beaches and parks. And though it can sometimes be tricky for renters to find dog friendly places, dogs are SUPER popular here.

As others have suggested, it's the move back to the mainland that will be the main concern. If the company will not be moving you home at the end of the year make sure you have savings and a plan in place before coming out here. Especially with the dog to move back, it will be easier to move back with the dog than move here but flying pets is never cheap.

For the quarantine it sounds like you are in good hands for the process. As long as you've got the bloodwork in by now, you should be OK for March though one of you may have to stay behind a few weeks with the dog for the last few weeks to allow for direct release. We moved out here a year and a half ago with FOUR cats, and it was quite the process but honestly once you have the paperwork covered and that blood test sent in it's pretty smooth going.

I think with housing and a car covered, financially you'll do just fine here, and with your interests in outdoor activities it sounds like you will quite enjoy the time here. To be perfectly honest, unless you reaaallllyy like cold weather (which you may, given your current location) you may just never want to leave and it could be heartbreaking after a year having to go back to the mainland.

~Kate