Things to take in consideration before relocating to Hawaii

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Yup, Wink is right, take the weather into consideration. During winter, we get really cold. It can get below sixty for days at a time and the house doesn't have a heater. This is very common for houses in Hawaii. Other than an occasional wood stove, I don't know of any residential house which has a heater. The cabins at Kileaua Military Camp have heaters and some of the retail establishments up in high elevation places like Volcano have them. Most mainland folks can easily get the concept of "no A/C" but we don't have any heaters, either. "Warm" is relative. If you have a heated house to go into, then fifty five degrees is warm. Do mainland folks turn the heater in their houses down to below sixty in the wintertime? Below fifty five?

Add in the custom of going barefoot in the house and it can be quite chilly! During the winter we have assorted house slippers to offer guests as well as fuzzy slippers for ourselves. And on the subject of fuzzy slippers, did you know they are seasonal? Some parts of the year they aren't available on our island.

Sounds like Japan. We have heat here, but the housing insulation is terrible, so it feels like we don't.

I love the 'no shoes in the house' customs. Makes sense to me.

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by PacificFlights

Oh yes, that's the winning suggestion!

Many times we hear people talk of moving and often when we read what they are saying we get caught up in the expense, problems, employment, housing and such. But the real question we should be asking e veryone is WHY? becaue half the time the reason may not be whats available or reality. Look at poor Wink, reason to move to maui was because of watching Magnum PI. We got caught up on where to move, what to expect for transportation, bike or buy car, all the stuff except what about Magnum PI was real and what was a illussion. Sorry Wink, we dropped the ball on you and probably could have prepared you better had we looked at the WHY you were moving, not just the pieces of the move.

I didn't move to Hawaii because of Magnum PI, I just never would have thought of living here if it wasn't for Magnum PI... And it was a very representative show, just like King of the Hill is of Texas. Before I watched Magnum PI I thought it was just tourism and pineapples here. BTW, you know Magnum was always broke right? I definitely don't regret moving to Maui... I just regret being poor.

[hotzcatz]

Being poor sucks. Can you find a partner? Having two people share expenses really helps things along. Of course, being poor makes it harder to find someone else. Maybe meeting someone online would save a lot of expense of having to go hang out places?

The economic structure of Hawaii might be part of why ohana and family are so important. It's one of the best ways of surviving well in Hawaii - do it in groups. This lack of a group is something a lot of mainland folks don't seem to take very seriously. The support that most folks get from their family and peer group is immense. Moving to a new place without that group takes it's toll and a lot of folks don't realize how much support they get until it's not there anymore. Sometimes it's just mental support. You know if something happens, they will be there to help. Sometimes it is more concrete help such as with childcare, finances, etc. But the invisible social net is there. Frequently, when mainland folks move to Hawaii they not only don't have that social net, but they have moved to an area which is sort of waiting for them to fail.