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I asked the below questions in another thread and didn't get a response. Can anyone here shed some light? Much appreciated!
I'm moving to Oahu in the Spring, I have a job in downtown Honolulu.
Where is a good place to live if I want to surf on the North shore as often as possible?
I understand the commute from the NS to Honolulu is really bad/impossible, true? Is the west side a possibility? Or, is it best to live in or near Honolulu?
Thanks!
Alex
It's not impossible, just long and tedious...traffic crawls in Honolulu and its suburbs during rush hour, so it depends on how willing you are to deal with it.
If you lived somewhere like Waikele, you're relatively close to the NS, bout half an hour with no traffic, plus, you're close to the surf spots Ewa side too (white plains / shark country etc) or even Makaha / Waianae side...and you're about 20 minutes from downtown w/out traffic, up to an hour - an hour and a half with traffic...plus after work you could head out to all the town sites too. Hope this helps
You'll be going to your job much more frequently than surfing and the waves go where they will, so get the best commute for work and then go where the waves are when you want to surf. Also, living downtown, you'd be going counter to commuter traffic when going surfing or going when the traffic isn't there, so get the best location for work and the surf will work itself out. It changes from season to season, too, and downtown is central so you'd be able to pick your waves where ever they are.
Which side is west? Is that leeward? Those mainland "directions" are placenames in Hawaii, they really aren't directions here. Also with the exception of H3, all the highways have names, not numbers. We have windward and leeward, for the two sides of the island. For directions there is mauka which is towards the mountains, and makai which is towards the ocean. There is Diamond Head which is towards Diamond Head and Ewa which is towards Ewa. Those two directions change depending on where you are on the island but once you are here, these types of directions will make a lot more sense than those strange "north, south, east and west" directions you mainland folks seem to like so much. Islands are round and the roads curve all sorts of ways, those mainland directions don't go in enough directions to be useful and nobody knows which way they are anyway.
I asked the below questions in another thread and didn't get a response. Can anyone here shed some light? Much appreciated!
I'm moving to Oahu in the Spring, I have a job in downtown Honolulu.
Where is a good place to live if I want to surf on the North shore as often as possible?
I understand the commute from the NS to Honolulu is really bad/impossible, true? Is the west side a possibility? Or, is it best to live in or near Honolulu?
Thanks!
Alex
Try Google Maps and check out cities on there. Then come back when you have a list of the ones you think are good. Then people can give you feedback on the individual cities.
You'll be going to your job much more frequently than surfing and the waves go where they will, so get the best commute for work and then go where the waves are when you want to surf. Also, living downtown, you'd be going counter to commuter traffic when going surfing or going when the traffic isn't there, so get the best location for work and the surf will work itself out. It changes from season to season, too, and downtown is central so you'd be able to pick your waves where ever they are.
Which side is west? Is that leeward? Those mainland "directions" are placenames in Hawaii, they really aren't directions here. Also with the exception of H3, all the highways have names, not numbers. We have windward and leeward, for the two sides of the island. For directions there is mauka which is towards the mountains, and makai which is towards the ocean. There is Diamond Head which is towards Diamond Head and Ewa which is towards Ewa. Those two directions change depending on where you are on the island but once you are here, these types of directions will make a lot more sense than those strange "north, south, east and west" directions you mainland folks seem to like so much. Islands are round and the roads curve all sorts of ways, those mainland directions don't go in enough directions to be useful and nobody knows which way they are anyway.
For anyone not from HI or lived there long enough, this explanation about directions may not make any sense BUT for those of us who've lived there all our lives, this makes perfect sense! When on the mainland, I still can't make sense of north, south, east & west.
808N310, hotzcatz, TXLara, and Blesstd, thanks for the great advice, very helpful.
Sorry for the mainland "directions", I guess words like west really don't make sense when you live on a circular island. I think by 'westside' I meant Leeward.
I will look at some cities/towns on Google Maps and see what I think.
I just moved back to Texas, and I am still marveling at going to the grocery store. I walk down the aisles here and just stare at how CHEAP everything is. Went out to lunch with some friends last Sunday and my portion of the meal was less than $10! I'm still used to Hawaii pricing, so I'm constantly feeling like I'm finding $20 bills in my pockets or something.
speaking of sales, i heard that there is no black Friday in HI? is that right? are there other good times to buy things? i'm going to need to buy all appliances and furniture for a new house sometime this yr and trying to decide when would be a good time.
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