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Thanks so much for the update. Congrats on your daughter getting into Punahou! Was it a difficult process? How was the admission test and interview? I've met a number of graduates from Punahou from college and law school, and they were all well-adjusted and intelligent individuals. I would love to send my daughter there. What grade is your daughter?
We decided to live in Waikiki in a condo. Rented a house for 1 year in Manoa/Makiki, but decided we needed more action (restaurants, nightlife, gym, pool, etc.) My commute is 10-15 min and husband's commute is 20-30 min. Price was comparable to NOVA but in NOVA we could have purchased a
3 bedroom townhome whereas here, we opted for a new condo. In Hawaii, you must adjust your idea of "wants" -- be open to wanting something different. Thought we wanted a house, but turns out we are very very happy in a smaller space and we LOVE Waikiki. I know many hate it, but coming from NOVA, this is the perfect place for us. I will NEVER leave!! Not if I can help it anyway!
By the way, our daughter is in 4th grade. Admissions process was rigorous -- 2 days of testing, observation, and some one on one time with the teachers. Our daughter really loves the school.
Hi binkybarns, I know your post is relatively old (thanks for giving an update, it's always nice to hear how things actually turn out), but I wanted to see if you've gained any further insight on the public/private schools in HI since you've been there. My husband has a new job and they would like for us to move to Honolulu next summer for logistic reasons because he will be traveling to Asia a lot where his company is based. I'm all stressed out because of the school situation. My kids are total haoles (blonde hair/blue eyes) and we wanted to send them to Punahou, however, my son will be entering 2nd grade next year and the next entry point, as I understand it, is 4th grade. We also have a daughter that has another 2 years before kindergarten, she is currently in a Montessori pre-school, and another son two years behind that. We have a pretty good housing budget (we will initially rent with budget around $7k per month) and thought about moving to Kahala and having the kids attend Kahala Elementary, but it seems from these forum posts that even schools with "10" greatschools.org ratings aren't all that great? I see you didn't like St. Andrews Priory all that much, have you heard of other good private schools? I'm only familiar with Punahou because I have a couple of friends from Hawaii and one went to Punahou and the other Iolani, but bot recommended Punahou - I'm open to other suggestions though. Of the students that transfer to Punahou, where do they typically come from? I'm a little depressed about having to spend so much $ for private school at the elementary level, but I definitely don't want to skimp out in education and home-schooling is definitely not an option! Thanks for your input.
My husband has a new job and they would like for us to move to Honolulu next summer for logistic reasons because he will be traveling to Asia a lot where his company is based.
You barely save any flight time to places like Tokyo compared to San Francisco from Honolulu - and most places to Asia, like Hong Kong are a longer flight compared to San Francisco as you need connections from Honolulu and you can't fly over the poles - and flights to Asia are usually more expensive from Honolulu to Asia compared to San Francisco.
Honolulu vs a West Coast gateway with more non-stops to Asia seems an odd choice for your company.
Hi binkybarns, I know your post is relatively old (thanks for giving an update, it's always nice to hear how things actually turn out)...
If you check the profile for binkybarnes, she has not had any activity here since April, so you may not get a response.
Having school-age kids is by far the largest complicating factor for anybody's move to Hawai'i, so I would give a lot of research and very careful thought before making that decision. And I echo the point that moving to Hawai'i to be closer to Asia doesn't really seem to make a lot of sense when you look at the actual routes and schedules and fare tables available.
BTW, I recommend you forget the "my kids are haoles" stuff. It's actually not very meaningful these days, and thinking that way distorts expectations.
I am definitely not a flight junkie like my husband (who could name every flight to/from Asia), but I was given the impression that there were a lot of direct flights from Honolulu to Asia - they just added a new direct flight to somewhere, I don't know, flight routes aren't my thing, but the other factor was the time zone which would give him another 2/3 hours to converse with Singapore. Hey, but I would much rather move to SF, I mean I love, love HI and I've spent a lot of time there, but I don't know about living there with 3 young kids.
I don't know, flight routes aren't my thing, but the other factor was the time zone which would give him another 2/3 hours to converse with Singapore.
To be honest, this doesn't seem to me to be a great reason to move to Hawai'i, either. I used to manage global projects for a tech giant that is located in the US Central Time Zone, and we'd regularly schedule conference calls between personnel in the US and China, India, Europe and rotate the times of the calls so that sometimes it was late at night for me, sometimes late at night for them. And there were hundreds of other managers who did the same. It's just what you do in global commerce.
It seems to me that losing a bit of sleep now and then is a lot simpler and easier than moving the entire family 2500 miles out into the ocean. And then he wouldn't have that strange time difference with a mainland HQ, wherever it is... 7 hours to the East Coast, 5 hours to the Center, 3 hours to the West Coast. People always have trouble with that.
This is a little different in that it is a small company based in Singapore and they originally wanted my husband to move to Singapore to be in charge of international sales. If you think Honolulu is expensive, you should check out Singapore. The international schools there run around $30k - $45k a year, so HI was kind of the compromise. We are currently in the central time zone, which is almost opposite of Singapore, I think a 14 hour time difference (or am I doing it backwards, I don't know), so in HI that would be a 5 hour benefit.
Don't forget in your time calculations that Hawaii does not observe Daylight Savings Time.
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