Moving to hilo for school (Pahoa: apartments, rentals, neighborhoods)

[Codya1507]

Hello,
So me and my wife will be moving to hilo around June 2016. We are moving from Marion, NC. And we have been to all the websites and read all the info on things we need to take care of before we move. The only things we haven't been able to find is info on the community itself. Besides the fact that apparently white people get bullied by locals. Which will be a problem for my wife and I. I'm 1/2 Maori on my dad's side so I've been all over the southern pacific and never received any grief from anyone. But I'm honestly worried about my wife. She's really caring and tender hearted and even small comments deeply offend her. Any suggestions on how to avoid stuff like this?
Also is there any neighborhoods that should be avoided by non locals when we arrive and start our apartment search? I will be going to uh for marine science and I would like something pretty close to the school.
she has her MBA and currently works at a bank. I have my CDL's and currently do government security work. And we were wondering how hard it was going to be to find jobs.
Thanks in advance for any replies

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Where have you been reading that white people get bullied by locals? Not true! There have been many threads about this issue on this forum, and after you read through them you will see that those of us who live in Hawaii don't have that experience at all. Sometimes kids in school do, but you didn't mention having kids.

[67Cam]

As a non Big Island resident who has been researching the BI for a possible move I found the best way to search for information is to use Google. To narrow down the results try this format:

city data big island: living in hilo

Just change out the wording after the colon to whatever you are interested in. In the example above you'll find many threads on living in Hilo. To narrow it even further you could put quotation marks around a set of words, i.e. "UH student housing".

[PMA.AD]

My husband and I moved here from NC two years ago. I haven't once felt bullied. I think your wife will be fine. Like anywhere in the world you will run into jerks, but most people are extremely nice. Jobs are difficult to come by and even with a MBA your wife might have a more difficult time than you (because there don't seem to be a lot of office jobs). I would encourage you both to apply with the County of Hawaii. I know they need CDL drivers, but you would of course need a Hawaii CDL license and these would be full-time jobs.

I think jobs and apartments are very difficult to find from the mainland so you might need to be prepared that you may not have either by your move date.

I'm probably not the best person to answer about neighborhoods.

Good luck!

[Codya1507]

Thanks for all the responses

[Codya1507]

Also are appartments hard to find? We had planned on using a vacation rental for a month or two while we searched.

[terracore]

In my experience, the people who find racism in Hawaii are the ones looking for it.

[the1heat4u]

Come with a kind heart, and a genuine smile.. and you will be a-ok. I think the only people who have issues typically are rude tourist. Which would be be different than a tourist coming to your town and being disrespectful. Respect and kindness is a big thing in Hawaii. Treat people like ohana.. and no worries!

There is plenty diversity, and unless you go looking for the bad in people.. you shouldn't find it. As for housing and work... that is a whole other pickle!

[hotzcatz]

A month or two in a vacation rental should find you an apartment. It's hard to rent them from the mainland and you'd not want to rent anything until you've seen it anyway. But a month or so should be enough time to find a spot. Craig's List is pretty much the way to find apartments, so you can look around there and get a feeling for how many of them are available at any particular time. There was a lack of them last year when Pele almost ate Pahoa (translate that to lava almost crossing the highway in Puna). Folks were moving out of lower Puna in droves and renting in Hilo so there weren't any more rentals in Hilo. But, as their leases come up, they'll all be drifting back to Puna since the volcano settled down again.

Finding jobs is easier once you're here, too. Folks kinda want to know that you'll show up so they are hesitant to hire mainland folks since they're so far away.

[Codya1507]

Thanks for all the info. This site has truly been a blessing for us.