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For all of you who wanted to know how much it would cost you on average to move to Hawaii...it's now time to hear from the experts...those that have done it before!
For those of you who have made the big move within the last 3 years, can you help us out there who would like to move here and would like to know what the real costs are. Please answer the following questions to give our readers some idea of the true costs:
Now I know that your answers will differ greatly depending on your situation, but this is the beauty of this...readers will get a varied perspective from you and give consideration in accordance with their own situation. It might also be interesting for us that have moved here to compare our out of pocket costs...
~~~ we are a family of 4, bringing over 3 bedrooms if not less, a horse, wiener dog,3 cats, maybe a horse trailer, 1 car. my husband is an electrician and i am a nurse.
1. What island did you move to and what year?
2. how hard was it to find a job?
3 Cost of getting your pet over including air/quarantine/special shots..etc?
4 cost of transport for your car?
5. Cost of transporting your furniture etc,freight,boxes, containers?
6. Cost of your first rental place and deposit?
7. Cost of your average electrical bill?
8. Cost of your average monthly grocery bill?
9. Cost of your average car gas fill-up?
any more info would be greatly appreciated! ALOHA Kauai or BUST
I was reading the blog you'd written elsewhere and a touch OT comment, but an electrician's license from the mainland isn't valid in Hawaii. So, your DH will have to work for an on-island electrical company for a bit so he can get a Hawaii license instead of opening an electrical business of his own. Just another bit of data to factor into the whole enchilada.
It isn't uncommon to find 3 bedroom houses that are right around 1,000 square feet, so your three bedrooms full of stuff may not fit.
Some folks have mentioned it's about $1K per animal to bring them over, what with the shots and quarantine and shipping and all, but I'm real sure horses are gonna be way more than that.
Ditch the horse. It will make your move a little more likely to be successful. You will need to be rich to bring and keep a horse. Not even sure how difficult it is to get it past quarantine, etc. You may want to even ditch the cats and dogs as it is almost impossible to find a place to rent with animals.
Sorry to be a downer, but you want real advice; correct?
It wouldn't be too difficult to keep a horse on the Big Island. There is plenty of pasture and there is a strong cowboy and riding culture.
A horse is a mammal so will have to do the rabies quarantine. You'll have to check with the state of Hawaii to see what their requirements are. There is a rabies vaccine for horses.
I've looked into shipping horses (from Britain to the USA) and it is expensive. The way I understand it is that the module for a horse is big enough for 3 horses and is charged accordingly. Some one has to travel with the horse with a strong tranquilizer or stun bolt who will agree to either tranquilize or kill the horse if it panics and starts to thrash around. Horses fly all the time, so I assume that rarely happens with a horse who is well trained to trailer. Multimillion dollar race horses fly all over the place, to several different countries and nobody seems to be all that worried about whether it is safe or not.
Horses can be shipped by sea. That sounds to me like it would be a miserable trip for the horse. I do not know if any cargo line that carries horses has ships that go to Hawaii. Again, it is not cheap and the horse requires a full time groom to stay with it.
There are horses for sale on The Big Island, if you'd like to re-home the current horse and buy another one. Look on Craigslist, Big Island, in the farming section to see what is available. There are some pretty decent horses available.
I suspect that there are not many horses on Oahu, considering the cost of land and how small houses and lots are. But there are horses on Maui which is also a very expensive place to buy.
Call the car shipping people to ask about the horse trailer. They are the ones who will know. Your car should be slightly over $1000 if you can deliver it to the port.
Sheila Head's Hawaiian Transport is a horse shipping specialist. She has an informative website about what is required by Hawai'i animal quarantine regulations and what the process is.
Basically, you deliver the horse to the ranch in central California with all the required papers, then once a week they ship from port of Oakland to Honolulu in special containers, with an attendant. Takes 4 - 6 days. Cost starts at $1,300. From Honolulu to Kauai would be via barge, at additional cost.
For the car, all three shipping companies that serve Hawai'i... Pasha, Matson, and Horizon... currently charge the same $1,100 from their west coast ports to Honolulu, Maui, Big Island. To Kauai $1,400 (because they have to be unloaded from the big ship in Honolulu and then barged to Kauai, since it has a small harbor.)
For the horse trailer, contact Pasha. They are specialists in moving all manner of vehicles and wheeled equipment, RVs, boats, etc. https://www.pashahawaii.com/
For the car, all three shipping companies that serve Hawai'i... Pasha, Matson, and Horizon... currently charge the same $1,100 from their west coast ports to Honolulu, Maui, Big Island. To Kauai $1,400 (because they have to be unloaded from the big ship in Honolulu and then barged to Kauai, since it has a small harbor.)
No extra charge from Matson to go to Kaua'i. We just shipped with them a couple of weeks ago, and the total cost was $1102.25 - the $2.25 was for the DOA inspection before the car was loaded.
1- Oahu, Jan 2011
2- Had a job lined up prior to moving. Interviewed via skype and tested remotely for qualification.
3- 3 cats, $2,500 total including vet visits, flights, etc. They were ready to go before we made it to the release area. We flew them on Hawaiian, I have no doubt this made a difference.
4- $1,300. It arrived in about 10 days.
5- $400. We shipped USPS flat rate boxes and brought over 4 Blue Plastic bins with other stuff. Everything else was sold or donated.
6- $1,100 /mo + $25/pet/month, 250 sq ft studio in Moili'ili (2 mi inland from waikiki). Deposit was same as first month's rent (by law). Pet deposits did not exist at that time. They can be up to 1 month's rent now.
7- After first place (3 months), it has always been included in rent or Condo Association dues.
8- $400 or so depending on what we get. (just the two of us) We shop every week, rather than monthly.
9- $50, 13 gallon tank, and I usually fill up at 1/4 remaining.
Sorry, the main room was about 250 sq ft. Add in the bathroom, the whole place was 317 sq ft. Here's a Link
Yeah, WAY TOO SMALL for 5 living creatures. I joked with my wife before we moved..."how big of a place do we really need?" Well, we know now, and it's fun to laugh about it. Wasn't so funny at the time.
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