Hilo Living Blog

Hawaii Cost of Living and Solar Panel Maintenance

2013-05-07T16:08:00.000-10:00

Easy to clean on the ground panel

In Hawaii, a solar energy system can reduce the cost of a Kilo Watt Hour from 44 cents to about 6 cents. Although solar panels are widely advertised as a way to cut the cost of the monthly electric bill, there is rarely anything said about the need and cost of maintaining the system and keeping the solar panels clean.

Industry reports say lack of solar panel cleanings can cause a loss of up to 25% of the power efficiency. A typical residential installation in Hawaii costs $25,000 to $30,000, so a 15% to 25% drop in power translates to a loss of $3,750 to $6,250. This is in addition to power loss on cloudy and heavy vog days. Panels collect dust, leaves, and other debris and in Hawaii the vog can leave a thick layer of grey volcanic ash. Moisture, bird droppings, and bugs covering the panel are also a problem. Regular cleaning of the surface is the only way to maintain the power generated to maximize the investment and keep the electric bill low.

When solar panels are installed, they are usually positioned where they can perform most efficiently and are not in the shadow of another building, trees, or other obstructions. But, their position on a roof may make it difficult and dangerous to clean and maintain. We used a solar power system at a cabin we owned for about ten years. The solar panel was installed in a rack outside about 5 feet high which made it easy to inspect and clean. Since it was our only source of power we could tell it needed to be cleaned when our power suddenly dimmed. Solar energy systems installed in Hawaii that feed power directly into an electric grid provide no “reminder” to clean the panels when power output lowers.

You can clean the panels yourself which takes time and effort and if the panels are on the roof, could be dangerous. The job requires an investment in tools and cleaning supplies. Cleaning solutions are needed that do the job without harming the roof or garden below. The water used for rinsing cannot be “hard” or it will leave a film of minerals. Telescopic poles with a water feeding system are available for about $1000 and up depending upon the pitch and height of the roof. Other options are to use a professional cleaning service or installing an automated cleaning system, but they add to the yearly cost of the system.

In our case, we have been able to reduce our monthly electric bill to about $100 by using LED lights, LED TV, and LED computers, turning down the water heater, never running the AC, and even minimizing our use of power when cooking. When calculating the benefit of reducing a monthly electric bill with a solar power system, the hidden expense of system maintenance, solar panel cleaning, additional home insurance, and replacement cost for failing or corroded parts should be added to the cost.

Hawaii Tourism

2013-04-29T09:37:00.001-10:00

2013 Visitor Stats from Hawaii Tourist Authority

Recently, the Hawaii Tourism Authority released some good news about the increase in visitors to Hawaii in March. The 769,047 tourists that visited the islands was an increase of 7.6% from last March. The majority of the visitors came from the Western US states but the number of visitors from the rest of the US, Canada, Japan, and cruise ships were all up. There was also an increase in visitors from Oceania, China, Korea, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Latin America. Our take is that a lot of people from everywhere came to Hawaii, resulting in over 7% more tourists during the first three months of 2013 compared to the same time in 2012.

When Oahu has an increase in visitors, it does not always mean that more visitors show up on Hawaii Island. But the past few months we really noticed an increase in the number of visitors at the two hotels nearby and in vacation rentals inside our condo complex. We have met couples and groups of people from all over the world at the pool, on the beach, and in the grocery stores.

Many of the visitors we talked to have never been to Hawaii before. The increased violence and crime in Southern Europe, the Caribbean islands, and Mexico has forced them to change the location of their yearly tropical vacation. One couple’s biggest surprise was that Hawaii was no more expensive than an upscale resort in Mexico. Many people think Hawaii is really expensive and Mexico is really cheap, but the 5-star resorts in Mexico are very pricey. They thought the food was better in Hawaii and they were not having the stomach problems they frequently get in Mexico. They were also happy that there were no troops patrolling their hotel with machine guns and were not scared to go out at night.

Many US Universities had their Spring breaks in March instead of April because Easter was early this year. We noticed large groups of college age visitors rented condos during March, we assume for Spring break. The strongly worded warnings from the State Department about the violence in Mexico and the Caribbean may be partly the reason for the large number of young people on the island. Though they loved the sun and beach, they looked bored with the lack of night life on Hawaii Island.

We hope the new visitors to the island will not only return, but tell their friends about their great Hawaii vacation.

High value house design in Hawaii

2013-04-22T11:58:00.000-10:00

We recently calculated that running an air conditioner every day to keep a small 2 bedroom home cool that was not designed for Hawaii’s tropical climate would cost between $450 to $1000 a month for electricity. That extra monthly expense is the equivalent to an additional $100,000 to $225,000 that could have been used toward a mortgage at 3.5% interest.

If this monthly expense for electricity was income generated from a savings account paying 0.2% interest (sadly a common interest rate these days) it would take a savings account of $2.7 million to $6 million just to generate the $5,400 to $12,000 annual cost for electricity.

Surprisingly, homes in Hawaii designed for the tropics to minimize the cost of electricity and homes designed for cold climates that are solar ovens requiring continuous air conditioning are often priced the same.

Although the financial benefits are enormous when a home does not require air conditioning, the enjoyment and health benefits of having fresh, tropical breezes blowing through your home is yet another huge value in a house designed for Hawaii.

Is Hawaii where to Retire?

2013-04-11T10:27:00.001-10:00

Every day 11,719 “baby boomers” (Americans born between 1946 and 1964) turn 65. Many of the 77 million “boomers” are planning to retire soon and consider living in a warm, tropical environment ideal. In the past two years, Hawaii has seen a surge in the number of visitors, due in part to the spreading violence and political unrest in many other tropical destinations. We suspect that many of the visitors are boomers looking at Hawaii as a place to retire.

We know personally how wonderful it is to live in Hawaii. The year round warm weather, the amazing local foods, the laid back lifestyle, and the traditional respect for the elderly makes Hawaii a great place to be old. We have always wondered when the boomers would show up in Hawaii looking to retire. We calculate that if only 1% of the 77 million American boomers retire in Hawaii, it would increase Hawaii’s small population by almost 1 million people.

After five years of living on Hawaii Island, this is the first year we have seen a noticeable increase in older Americans from the mainland on the west side of Hawaii Island. They are more obvious this time of year, because it is the start of “off season” and the thinning crowds of tourists make long term residents stand out. Normally the beaches and parks are less crowded and the traffic lets up this time of year. So, we are surprised at the number of boomer couples still here from the mainland in the grocery stores, strolling around town, swimming off the Kailua pier, sunning on the beaches, and walking on the Maka’eo path. We are even seeing out of state license plates on the highway, a rarity in Hawaii.

If boomers do retire in Hawaii in large numbers, the changes could be epic. There could be an increase in real estate prices, new businesses, increased traffic, and the “boomer vote” would change the political priorities in Hawaii. A single seasonal surge in older Americans remaining on the island past “high season” may be a fluke or the beginning of a big change in Hawaii, only time will tell.

2013 Merrie Monarch Festival

2013-03-29T15:49:00.001-10:00

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the Merrie Monarch hula festival which started in Hilo in 1963. The hula festival was named for King David Kalakaua, the Merrie Monarch who brought hula and chants back into fashion after being banned by the powerful Queen Ka’ahumanu, the favorite wife of the first Monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha I.

Although the Merrie Monarch hula competitions are Thursday through Saturday, events celebrating hula and Hawaiian culture take place all week in Hilo. The Ho’olaule’a (music festival), which starts the week of events, is on Easter Sunday at the Civic Auditorium and showcases hula by local halaus.

During our first Merrie Monarch five years ago, we exhausted ourselves attending every free event around the town during the week. But every year since, free events have been replaced by advanced purchase ticket sales. This year even the Ho’ike, a non-competitive hula extravaganza that hundreds of fans wait five or more hours in line to experience, requires a ticket, which had to be purchased months ago, to attend.

The daily performances at the Naniloa Volcanoes Resort (at Noon) and Hilo Hawaiian Hotel (at 1PM) from Monday to Friday are still free, but the performance areas are very small which limits what you can see. You have to pick one of the hotel performances and get there very early to make sure you can actually experience the hula. There are also free hula performances at the Civic Auditorium at 11AM Wednesday through Saturday. For the first time, the Prince Kuhio Plaza Mall has scheduled a program of free performances by local halaus and musicians in the center court starting at 11AM during the week from Monday through Saturday. And the grand Merrie Monarch royal parade through downtown Hilo on Saturday morning is free.

Attending the Ho’olaule’a on Easter day has become a tradition for us and we are looking forward to it. The rest of the week, we plan to experience the festival from our couch, watching the coverage by KFVE. We were disappointed that we cannot attend the Ho’ike, but thrilled with the news in an email from the KFVE station manager, John Fink: “We will be showing an edited version of the Wednesday night events (hula and song) from 8-10PM on Wednesday. We hope you enjoy.”

If you are not in Hawaii,you can still enjoy the Merrie Monarch festival over streaming live programming by KFVE.

Here is one of favorite performances, "How Great Thou Art", from the 2012 Ho’olaule’a. Happy Easter!!

Hawaii “Pity Party” season

2013-03-18T14:21:00.000-10:00

When “off season” arrives in Hawaii, it is common to have a “going away” or “pity” party for the snowbirds preparing to return to North America until next winter. We have a lot of sympathy for them having to leave. Before moving to Hawaii, we visited the islands every winter to chase away our winter blues caused by the endless gray winter days in Northern California.

Since we haven’t left Hawaii in six years, we rarely think about dealing with cold, gray days. But hearing the groans at a recent “pity party” from snowbirds dreading the cold weather awaiting them, we recalled the difficulty we use to have when leaving Hawaii after a winter vacation.

One way we survived our return to the cold was by having a “Hawaii Room”. We set aside a small room upstairs and used an electric floor heater to warm it up to about 78 degrees. That way we could keep the room 10 to 15 degrees warmer than the rest of the house. We bought several full spectrum lights, put beach towels on the rug, and played Hawaiian music on our boom box. With our eyes closed, we could imagine that we were lying on the beach. We dreamed about the day we would live in Hawaii full time and played our favorite Dido song about returning from a tropical vacation to a depressing, dead-end job:

Tomorrow's back to work and down to sanity,
Should run a bath and then clear up the mess i made before I left here.
Try to remind myself that I was happy here,
Before I knew that I could get on a plane and fly away,
From the road where the cars never stop going through the night,
To a life where I can watch the sun set,
And take my time.

From “Sand in My Shoes”

Writer: ARMSTRONG, DIDO/NOWELS, RICHARD W JR
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

The time we spent in our “Hawaii Room” led us to imagine a life in Hawaii. That dream gave us the energy to get up early, work hard, sell our house, get rid of stuff, and save enough money to afford to move to Hawaii. It has been a long time since we thought about that room, but reflecting on it now 10 years later, we think that our “Hawaii Room” was a big part of making our dream a reality.

Living in Hawaii on Less

2013-03-08T11:13:00.000-10:00

Recently we saw an article that claimed the cost of living in Maui was 200% higher than the “average” cost of living on the mainland. This matches our experience of the costs in Hawaii when trying to live the same way as we did on the mainland. Over the past five years, we have modified our lifestyle in Hawaii in order to cut our costs and improve the quality of our life. As a result, our expenses are much cheaper than they were when we lived in Northern California and our life is substantially more pleasant. Below is a list of living expenses that we reduced by changing our lifestyle.

Utility Costs - Electricity costs 4 to 7 times more than most places on the mainland so we have learned to live with less electricity. We live in a house that has windows that open to let the air through and we block the sun from heating up the inside. We never use AC and rely on fans and cold showers on really hot days. We wear thin clothes and swim in the morning to lower our body temperature in the summer. We use only LED lights and have an LED TV and energy efficient appliances. We keep appliances unplugged, our lights turned off when not being used, and our water heater turned low. We don’t use hair dryers and we monitor anything electric with an electric current meter (Kill-a-watt ). These actions have cut our electric costs by over 75%.

Food Costs - We only eat local fruit, vegetables, grass fed beef, and fish. When we bought grass-fed beef and Hawaiian fish in California we paid about 3 times more than we pay in Hawaii and we never were able to get Hawaiian avocados, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, mushrooms, bananas, and eggplants. We order processed foods in bulk (rice, rice pasta, almond flour, cherry juice concentrate, etc) from Amazon. Amazon has a Prime program that gives members free shipping, so we pay a third or less than the local store prices. We estimate eating local and ordering in bulk saves us about 75% from our grocery store costs on the mainland. We have to keep close track of our inventory to make sure we do not run out of food and modify our plan if the food we normally order is not on Prime at a particular time. Eating foods that are reasonably priced on the mainland or depending on meals at restaurants can break a budget in Hawaii because of the high costs of labor and shipping of foods to the island.

Housing costs - We rent and we move to take advantage of better deals as they become available. We have learned to look at the net cost of living in a place rather than just the cost of the rent. When we initially moved to Hilo, our rent was half of what we paid for a smaller, dumpy place in Cupertino, California. Though our rent went up when we moved to Kona, our net cost was lower because the rent included services that we were paying for in Hilo including sewer, water, trash, and access to a gym and swimming pool. When moved to South Kohala, we gained even more services and benefits without increasing our rent. Signing a long term lease during off season has allowed us to cut the cost of our rent by 75% of what we paid in California. Being able to decrease our housing costs over the past five years may not be feasible on other islands in Hawaii. Owning a home in Hawaii can be more expensive than on the mainland because of the cost of upkeep, security, taxes, utilities, County services, and owner association fees.

Medical Costs - The cost of our medical insurance on the mainland was staggering. When we moved to Hawaii we were able to cut our cost by over 75% by buying a Kaiser policy. Over the last five years our policy has doubled in cost, but it is still only 50% of what we paid in California. We shop around for any services we require like eye checks, glasses, etc. since the costs vary dramatically on the island. Maintaining a COBRA policy or mainland blue cross policy can be very expensive, so being able to switch to a low cost policy in Hawaii can make a big difference in cost of living.

Travel and Vacations - One of our biggest expenses in California was the cost of getting away from the cold, dreary winter to the sun in Hawaii. Now that we live in Hawaii, we never “go on vacation”. We have taken some trips to Oahu to visit our son, but we get great prices to stay in condos and hotels since we are locals and get Kamaaina rates. Many people we know travel back to the mainland frequently for business or family which can be a major cost of living in Hawaii.

We believe that the high cost of living a “mainland life style” is the major reason most new arrivals to Hawaii stay only a few years. Taking the time to plan and invent a Hawaii lifestyle can make a huge difference in the cost of living as well as increasing the enjoyment of being in Hawaii.

Our College Experience in Hawaii – a parent's perspective

2013-02-28T14:29:00.002-10:00

When we moved to Hilo, Hawaii in 2007 we rented a house near the University of Hawaii Hilo (UHH) campus so we would be within walking distance for our son to attend when he was ready.

The University of Hawaii system has almost a complete monopoly on higher education in the state with 10 campuses on six islands including 3 universities, 7 junior colleges, and 9 education centers. Although the tuition at UH has doubled since 2005, at $8,664 a year for residents, it is still relatively affordable compared to many universities on the mainland. Nonresident tuition at UH is substantially more expensive at $24,912. The tuition at UH campuses on Maui and the Big Island are lower, however all UH campuses have been scheduled for tuition increases each year until 2016. Having so many locations around the state has increased the number of students in the UH system to over 60,000; 85% of them are Hawaii residents.

When our son returned from a high school exchange in Japan and was ready to enroll into Freshman classes, UH Hilo admissions told us that we would have to pay out of state tuition; they claimed our year of residency in Hawaii did not count since our son had been out of the country. UHH was ranked poorly compared to other colleges in the US and their struggle to keep up with the flood of incoming students made us give up on fighting our residency case and on the UH system entirely. We started looking at other options for college.

Many of the high school graduates in Hawaii go to universities on the mainland, because other than UH, the only other universities in the state are Hawaii Pacific University (HPU), Chaminade University of Honolulu (CUH), and Brigham Young University Hawaii (BYUH). HPU is a private university with approximately 7000 undergraduate and 1200 graduate students located in downtown Honolulu. Chaminade is a private Catholic university located near UH Manoa with less than 3000 students enrolled and only 1200 undergraduate students. The BYU Hawaii campus is a Mormon university with 2500 students located in Laie, about 35 miles from Honolulu.

We preferred a college as close as possible to us, but the private universities in Hawaii did not seem a good fit for our homeschooled son. We were looking for a college experience that would allow him to gradually settle into a formal school environment. We even considered several colleges in Japan with international degrees. During our search, we were very surprised to discover that the largest private university system in Japan, Tokai University Educational System, had a college in Honolulu near Waikiki.

We went to Honolulu to tour the Hawaii Tokai campus which is contained in a single high-rise building that felt more like we were in central Tokyo than Hawaii. Our son felt very comfortable with the students after having just spent a year in high school in Japan. Tokai’s Hawaii campus offers an accredited AA degree in liberal arts. American citizens are offered a tuition reduction to encourage their enrollment which made Tokai’s tuition less than UH’s tuition for Hawaii residents. The English language courses and AA degree program at Hawaii Tokai are comprised of mostly Japanese students who live in dorm rooms above the classrooms in the high-rise building. The classes are small with 8 to 20 students and the professors are attentive to helping the students with their English skills to prepare them to transfer to an American university. Each term crams 16 weeks of a normal college semester into 10 weeks, so the college has 3 terms plus summer terms every year allowing two years of college to be squeezed into a year and a half. Getting good grades gives parents even more of a reduction in tuition. After a year and a half our son had accrued 50 credits and was ready to transfer to a university and take upper level courses.

One of the challenges of transferring between colleges is getting credit for classes already taken. Most colleges have a method to determine in advance what credits will transfer. If a lot of the credits taken do not transfer, it may take a lot more time and money to get a degree. UH has a online tool that compares courses from most colleges in the US to their equivalent course at UH and tells you whether the credit counts toward a degree or not. In some cases a class from a particular college will be eligible for credit one year and not another. Other universities in Hawaii provide a free evaluation of a student’s college course work to let you know how many credits will transfer and what prerequisites for graduation they fulfill.

When evaluating universities for our son to transfer to, our biggest concerns were tuition and living expenses. We again considered universities in Japan including Tokai’s main campus near Tokyo and Temple in downtown Tokyo, but the earthquake and nuclear disaster in March 2011 made that option impossible. We decided against UH after talking to students who were frustrated with class availability and having difficulty getting what they needed to graduate. Our son visited the 3 private university campuses on Oahu and was most excited by the degree programs at Chaminade. Fortunately, almost all of the courses he took at Hawaii Tokai transferred to Chaminade and fulfilled many of the lower level prerequisite courses for a degree.

The combination of federal loans, grants, and generous Chaminade scholarships has made tuition the past two years very affordable. However, covering the cost of living expenses in Honolulu has been a challenge. The cost of a dorm is about the same as the cost of a tiny apartment after factoring in the need to find another place to live when the dorms are closed and having to buy a meal plan. Sharing a house or condo can create other problems if roommates are not compatible or able to pay their share. The cost of living in Honolulu is much higher than our cost of living on the Big Island. A tiny studio apartment in Honolulu costs the same as a 3 bedroom 2 bath condo on the Big Island and our prices for fresh produce and meat on the Big Island are much lower than the prices for food in Honolulu grocery stores. However, the benefit of having our son in the same time zone and only a short plane ride away has been worth the extra cost to us.

Our son has helped to offset his cost of living by working, but part time jobs in Honolulu pay low wages. When adding the cost of clothing and transportation to a job and subtracting taxes, the amount of income does not cover the high cost of living. Furthermore, there are risks of having a job in college if it jeopardizes scholarships by lowering a student’s grades or requires additional semesters in school when classes are dropped. We have calculated that some scholarships are worth much more than the potential post-tax income from a part-time job in Honolulu.

College today requires a substantially larger financial investment from parents to insure that their child’s degree does not come with crushing debt. We think it is harder to get a degree now than it was when we attended over 30 years ago because so many more courses are required to graduate. As home schooling parents we feel lucky to have found great college opportunities for our son in Hawaii.

100 degrees warmer in Hawaii

2013-02-19T13:50:00.000-10:00

We have been feeling cold in Hawaii this winter. It has been getting down to 73 degrees at night so we need a blanket to keep warm. When we talked about winter being cooler this year, a snowbird friend remarked “It is over 100 degrees warmer here in Hawaii than my home town!”. He was checking the temperature at his house in the Dakotas and thinking about his return trip home in a couple of weeks.

To us, 100 degrees seems like an unbelievable difference in temperatures, particularly since the 85 degree winter days in Hawaii do not seem all that warm to us anymore. After seeing our look of doubt, he explained his calculation of adding 20 degrees below zero in his home town to 85 degrees in Hawaii today giving a 105 degree difference. That helped us to understand why visitors staying near us run the air conditioners in their rentals all night while we are bundled in a blanket.

In most of Hawaii’s tropical climate zones, the temperature difference between winter and summer is only about 10 degrees. The temperature difference between night and day, however, can be 20 to 30 degrees, much greater than temperature differences between seasons.

We have grown very fond of Hawaii’s temperature consistency since we never have to disrupt our schedule or exercise routine because of cold weather. Hawaii’s ideal weather year-round makes life of a string of perfect summer days; it makes the days and months run together and the years seem to fly by.

We have sympathy for those preparing to leave Hawaii and return to extremely cold temperatures in their home towns. We are very thankful that we live where it is “over 100 degrees warmer”.

Ideal Hawaii Homes for winter residents

2013-02-13T12:31:00.002-10:00

We often write about issues with housing in Hawaii like dealing with climate changes over the year and housing design features to maximize cool breezes to deal with summer heat. Recently, we have met numerous couples who are buying a house or condo to live in only during the winter months of the year. Most of them do not plan renting their part-time residences when they are not living in them. They are motivated to buy because of the high cost of renting a hotel or condo and a car for three months of the year.

We have noticed that the short-term Hawaii residents have some different housing issues and expenses than full time residents:

Security – theft is a major problem in Hawaii so houses and condos that are unattended for long periods of time require a security company that monitors the house or a location inside a secure, gated community;
Vehicle storage – vehicles left behind need a secure parking stall or storage area; some people have friends or pay someone to start up their cars during the year;
Community information – being off the island for most of the year can make it difficult to learn about and respond to issues that come up with the building, home owner’s association, security, or other changes in the community;
Island contacts –part time residents need to have someone on the island to call when something goes wrong that requires a person to investigate or fix;
Grounds maintenance – Hawaii’s climate requires a gardener year-round to tend to mowing, cutting, bug spraying and herbicide spraying either managed by a home owners association or by the owner.

When returning to the island, winter residents usually have a week or more of tasks requiring cleaning, recharging, or fixing appliances and vehicles from non-use. Bugs, geckos, and rodents may need to be eradicated and their mess on lanais or in the house cleaned up.

Recently, we had a conversation with a part-time resident who us told a horror story about the condo units in his building which are all unoccupied for most of the year. A resident returned after a long absence to a large rat infestation in his condo living on his stored food. He set out poison and the rats ate the poison and crawled up into the building's air vents where their corpses attracted vermin and bugs. When the other owners returned and turned on the central AC, their condos were filled with swarming bugs and the stench of decaying rats.

The appeal of purchasing real estate for winter visits is that the owners can lock in their price of a yearly vacation and extend the time they stay. If the property is purchased at a good price, they have the potential upside of making a profit in the long term. The financial risk of owning is having the expense of the property even if the owner is unable to come to Hawaii for some reason. If spending time in Hawaii, even if it is just for a few months of the year, adds years of life and health then having a winter residence in Hawaii will continue to be desirable.

Where to Stay on a Hawaii Island Vacation

2013-01-31T11:45:00.000-10:00

Hilton Waikoloa Village Resort

Since moving to South Kohala last summer, we have had the benefit of talking with many visitors to the island staying in the nearby resorts. We enjoy listening to their stories of touring the island, seeing the erupting volcano, and watching the whales. Surprisingly, many of the visitors who stay at the luxury resorts are disappointed with the lack of exciting adventures nearby. Visitors in search of an “Adventure Vacation” are bored at the remote, fancy resorts, whereas visitors in search of a “Resort Vacation” are thrilled.

Hawaii Island offers a luxury “Resort Vacation” on pristine, white sand beaches where you are pampered with staff who bring towels and drinks at cabanas on the beach and everything you need is right there. Years ago, when we had stressful jobs on the mainland, we often went to Hawaii just to rest, lay around the pool, be fed, and do nothing. The five-star resorts in South Kohala are perfect for this type of vacation. Though they are remote, there are cruises that leave from Kohala boat landings and nearby helicopter tours that offer a way to view the active volcano without requiring the long drive.

South Kohala Luxury Resort

Visitors in search of an “Adventure Vacation” find Hawaii Island one of the best places for excitement and discovery. There are zip lines over waterfalls, rafting trips through earth tunnels, swimming with huge manta rays at night, ATV tours through tropical jungles, evening boat trips to view lava spewing into the ocean, jet skiing, scuba diving into lava caves, horseback riding tours, and deep sea fishing. You can go parasailing, rent a Harley motorcycle to tour the island, rent a bicycle to ride the Ironman route from Kona to Hawi, or tour lava fields at night. However, the resorts in South Kohala are far from Volcanoes National Park, tropical forests in East Hawaii, and marine activities in Kona. When planning an Adventure Vacation, staying near the action makes more sense and saves many hours in the car driving from place to place.

Thurston Lava Tube hike Volcanoes National Park

On one of our favorite vacations to Hawaii Island we toured the island in search of adventure; we stayed at the Kona Islander Inn within walking distance to the pier, a B&B in Ka’u District close to spelunking in a lava cave at Kula Kai, our favorite B&B in Volcano – Kilauea Lodge - near hiking trails in Volcanoes National Park, at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel on Banyon Drive near tropical gardens, and at the Hilton in Waikoloa Beach to relax before leaving the island. The cost of these modest hotels and B&B’s were far less than staying at a resort hotel the entire time and it allowed us to pay for more activities.

Devastation Trail Volcanoes National Park

Whatever type of vacation you are planning, recognizing the long driving distances on Hawaii Island, reserving activities in advance, and selecting the right place to stay, makes all the difference in having the most fun on your vacation.

B&B Cottage Volcano Town

Robert Louis Stevenson in Hawaii

2013-01-26T13:09:00.001-10:00

Place of Refuge Hale o Keawe on Kona Coast

Robert Louis Stevenson, best known for his books Kidnapped and Treasure Island came to Hawaii in 1889. He spent time with King David Kalakaua, wrote a poem for the half-Scottish Princess Ka’iulani, and even visited the Big Island. Though Stevenson wrote a lot about his experiences in Hawaii, most of the writings about the islands were never published. Fortunately, his “Journal of the Kona Coast” was included in the book Travels in Hawaii by A. Grove Day published by the University of Hawaii Press in 1991, which we found at Kona Bay Books last week.

Born in Scotland in 1850, Stevenson was frail and sickly all his life. His first published works were travelogues about trips in Europe and to California and short stories about adventure, crime, tropical islands, and strange characters like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. However, he did not become popular until Treasure Island and his other children’s fantasy fiction novels were published with settings in warm, tropical islands that he had never visited. At the age of 39, Stevenson decided to visit the South Pacific with hopes of improving his health in a warmer climate and experiencing the places he had written about. He arrived in Honolulu from San Francisco in January 1889 and stayed until June.

We were surprised to read that Stevenson visited the Kona Coast during his stay in Hawaii. He arrived on a steamer in April 1889 and was dropped off on a reef just south of Kealakekua Bay. He waded to shore in knee deep water to Ho’okena village where he stayed for a week with a retired judge and his family. Stevenson described the Kona landscape and his horseback rides to a coffee plantation and Honaunau village in his journal. He toured the City of Refuge Hale o Keawe which inspired one of his short stories, “The Bottle Imp”, a classic tale of a cursed, magic bottle in a Hawaii setting.

Although Hawaii’s warm climate improved his health, Stevenson continued his journey south to tropical islands near the equator and eventually landed in Samoa where he bought acreage and built a house in Apia. Stevenson returned to Hawaii one more time in the summer of 1893 after his health degraded in Samoa, but he only stayed 5 weeks before returning to Samoa where he died at the age 44 the following year.

Note to self: Don’t leave Hawaii.

Where to eat on Hawaii Island

2013-01-09T13:26:00.000-10:00

During this high season on Hawaii Island, restaurants are packed and visitors are always asking us, “Where are the good restaurants?” and “Where do the locals eat?”. The visitors’ frustration with restaurants on the island brings back memories of our January visits to Hawaii and our exasperation at how poor the service was when we tried to eat out. Now that we live on the island year round, we have sympathy for the restaurant owners who for eight months of the year have empty restaurants with few servers and cooks required. We wonder how they even afford to stay open. During high season, these same restaurants struggle to deal with throngs of hungry, impatient tourists all wondering “Why does such a busy place have so few workers?”

Visitors from London, Paris, and the mainland tell us how much they love the beauty of Hawaii Island and the adventure of staying on a more remote island than Oahu. But they all complain about the slow service, high prices, and menu selection at most restaurants which usually consists of warmed up Costco food. We are constantly questioned about where the restaurants with fantastic food and impeccable service are hidden; the type of restaurants they are accustomed to from their home towns are on Oahu, not Hawaii Island.

Ironically, the local fish, grass-fed beef, fruits, and vegetables raised on our island are the best in the world. These food are offered at only a few restaurants, as the majority of visitors do not like the taste of fresh caught fish or grass feed beef. Most visitors do not want to wake up to a breakfast buffet of marlin, bonefish, opah, baked breadfruit, shimeji mushrooms, poi, kumquat, oranges, rambutan, papaya, and sweet potatoes on their vacation. So restaurants and buffets serve the imported frozen fish, corn fed beef, bacon, potatoes, breads, and dairy products tourists expect.

When we vacationed in Hawaii before moving to the island, we stayed in places with a kitchen or shared outdoor barbecue. We brought a small George Foreman grill in our luggage so we could cook fresh fish and local grass-fed beef. We visited Farmer’s markets around the island to buy ingredients for breakfast fruit bowls and lettuce, tomato, and avocado salads.

Though we prefer to cook at home, we find good values in prepared local foods at deli counters at Foodland and KTA. Cooks at these Hawaii grocery stores use island raised beef, chicken and pork and serve meals and side-dishes all day. COSTCO near the Kona airport sometimes has local caught fish and produce. The island’s health food stores like Island Naturals in Hilo and Kona have buffets for breakfast and lunch that offer vegetarian and organic prepared foods. These grocery stores have a year round customer base which keep cooks employed. Self-serve restaurants tend to have higher rankings online; though the line may be long, at least you avoid the frustrating wait for a server to tend to your order. We have noticed that on Hawaii Island we find the best tasting food where ever the least labor is required to serve it.

Planning for the New Year

2012-12-28T14:51:00.001-10:00

Our goal of reducing our boxes of papers and possessions recently resulted in us finding an unexpected treasure of past five year plans. The plans go back over 35 years and it was interesting to be able to review them with hindsight and evaluate how things worked out. Though many of our goals took years longer than we expected, in almost every case we eventually got what we set out to achieve.

Over the years we have had goals to buy new cars, own property, live in a house, pay off debts, lose weight, tour Europe, take vacations to Hawaii, move up the corporate ladder, buy a bigger house. Every acquisition and change in our life resulted in new goals, although keeping financially solvent and being healthy has always been on the list.

Many people have tried to convince us that all you need is a positive attitude to have everything work out well. Though a positive attitude is usually a good thing, we have found that having a well thought out plan is a far better approach to getting what we want. Fortunately, staying focused and making progress on our goals has always helped us to be positive.

As we prepare for the start of 2013, we are writing down our next five year plan. Many of our past goals are no longer important to us; we don’t need to “own” our home, or a new car, or take a vacation. Our plans are to hold on to the wonderful life we have in Hawaii and stay healthy and happy.

Happy New Year!!

Hau’oli Makahiki Hou!

Christmas in Hawaii

2012-12-20T15:42:00.000-10:00

Christmas was not celebrated in Hawaii until the missionaries showed up in the 1820’s, however, the Hawaiians traditionally celebrated the season with a festival called Makahiki. The Makahiki festival started when the cluster of stars known as the Pleiades appeared in the night sky and lasted several months. The festival was celebrated with hula, songs, feasts, sports competitions and was normally a time of peace. In 1856, King Kamehameha IV declared Christmas to be a national day of Thanksgiving in Hawaii.

Now days the Christmas season is the start of “high season” in Hawaii, a 90 day period from December 15^th though March 15^th. During high season, hotels and other tourist businesses double or triple their prices. We are careful to avoid being stung by the special tourist prices that are so prevalent during the holiday season. Yesterday, for example, we noticed local avocados selling for $2.89 a pound at the local grocery store, which makes a large avocado about $7; normally they sell for $2 a piece.

The good side of the Christmas season in Hawaii are the colorful decorations in the stores and hotel lobbies. The tourists seem cheerful and relaxed basking in the warm tropical sun and playing in the ocean. Of course, the local businesses and farmers are also cheerful during this season and excited by the throngs of visitors to the island. All the communities on the islands celebrate with parades, holiday lights, hula presentations, and festivals during this season and the fantastic weather makes it easy to have fun and get into the spirit.

Where ever you are, we hope you are having a wonderful Christmas season.

Mele Kalikimaka!

Creating an Ideal Life in Hawaii

2012-12-12T10:50:00.000-10:00

Relocating to Hawaii from the mainland requires so much planning, effort, and money that we are alarmed when families leave the island in frustration after living here just a short time. Two families in our condo complex just left, one after two years and another only six months after completing a major move of all their belongings. Watching people leave the island so quickly has made us focus on how to flourish in Hawaii. Here are things we are doing to help us live better:

Renting, instead of buying, has allowed us to experience living in many parts of the island over the past five years. Our desires in housing have changed dramatically, as we have, over the years. At first we wanted a great view of Hilo Bay, then we wanted to be closer to a white sand beach. As we got into better shape we wanted to be near great walking and swimming areas and cared less about the view. As we have focused more of our time on writing, we want more quiet, solitude, and better security. For just the cost of moving, we have freedom in recreating our lifestyle in a new location whenever we desire.

Reducing our cost of living, has kept us aware of opportunities on the island. We have been lucky to get more for less in the current economy in Hawaii. Reducing our monthly expenses has reduced our stress and brought more workability to our life style. We have significantly cut our rent expenses by timing our moves to the low season and identifying in advance where we wanted to live next. We have cut back in other areas of our living expenses by researching everything we buy and searching for the best prices. It may not seem like a big deal to buy the best coffee maker or the best coffee grinder, but year after year it adds up to a much more enjoyable life at a much lower cost.

Getting rid of stuff, gives us more space and peace of mind. We moved everything we owned to Hawaii, and though we initially had to store many of our boxes, we have had time to slowly sort through all our belongings and get rid of things. Every year we need less space as we shrink the volume of stuff we own.

Having time has been a great gift to us. We have had time to research, think, contemplate our life, and focus on our health. We have learned how to deal with our health issues, like gout, and to make changes in what we eat to lose weight and get healthier. Time has allowed us to learn how to cook new foods and implement new diets, like going wheat-free.

Any time we start to lose touch with how much better our life is on this island compared to anywhere else we have ever lived, we head over to one of the nearby resorts. We watch the sunset and listen to visitors from the mainland exclaiming with wonder over the beauty. We watch furrowed faces of people in hotel lobbies at the end of their vacation, waiting for their ride to the airport, already stressed out, yelling in their cell phones about the problems waiting for them when they arrive home. We know that what we appreciate in life we get more of, so every day we focus on appreciating every aspect of Hawaii that we love, no matter how small, so we will get many, many more years of it!

Your Ideal Hawaii Guides for Living Better in Hawaii

A Wheat free Thanksgiving with Hawaii Ingredients

2012-11-27T11:15:00.000-10:00

Mac-nut Biscuits

This Thanksgiving we made a major change in our favorite holiday foods. We replaced our bread dressing with wild rice dressing and made a crushed nut crust for our pumpkin pie. We found alternatives to our favorite cream gravy and buttermilk biscuits using Hawaii ingredients and started a new tradition of wheat-free Thanksgivings.

We started a wheat-free diet after two recent gout attacks that occurred after eating a lot of bread. We have not found any studies that show that wheat causes gout. However, some doctors claim that the modern hybrid dwarf wheat, the primary wheat available today, causes insulin spikes, inflammation, and is responsible for many other health problems. Though we find it hard to believe that wheat is as toxic as Dr. Davis claims in his book: Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health having a gout attack after eating a lot of bread motivated us to see if a wheat free diet would improve our health. After only six weeks on a wheat free diet, my feet are less swollen and shoes that were too small a year ago suddenly fit which makes me suspect that bread may indeed be the cause in my most recent gout attacks. Though we miss bread, we have found healthy replacements for our favorite foods using local products from the Big Island of Hawaii.

Here are two of the recipes we used last week for Thanksgiving.

Wheat-free Biscuits

2½ cups dry-roasted macadamia meal (we ground Mauna Loa Baking pieces)

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp gluten free baking powder

3 Tbsp coconut oil

3 tsp coconut milk

2 eggs

Mix the baking powder and soda with the macadamia nut meal. Whisk the eggs, coconut oil, and coconut milk and add to dry ingredients. The mixture is very wet – you can roll it into flat balls or spoon it on to an oiled flat pan. Cook in oven (preheated 350 degrees) for about 20 minutes until lightly brown. This makes about 12 biscuits.

Coconut Cream Gravy

2 Tbsp rice flour

3 Tbsp coconut flour

4 Tbsp coconut oil

1/2 cup broth

1/2 cup coconut milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the flours and oil in a pan and heat the roux. Slowly stir in the cup of broth and coconut milk until all the roux is absorbed. Turn up the heat and stir until it boils, then lower the heat. Stir until the gravy thickens – makes 1 cup of gravy.

Coconut Cream Gravy

2013 Year of the Water Snake

2012-11-14T15:42:00.000-10:00

Once again it is time for predictions based on the Chinese lunar calendar of the upcoming 2013 Year of the Water Snake. The Chinese Zodiac, popular in East Asia and Hawaii, assigns an animal to each year with characteristics that help predict the events of the year as well as the personality of those born during the year. As predicted, the current 2012 Water Dragon pushed the unpleasant realities in the world to the forefront and the unsettling change will continue until the start of the Snake Year on February 10, 2013.

Snakes are all about material wealth. They will plot and scheme to make sure things work out in their favor. The upcoming Snake year may get the world’s economies back on track, but it may be achieved by Xenophobia and isolationism. A Snake’s view of success and wealth is possessive and nationalistic. Though peace and harmony is preferable, anyone that criticizes or jeopardizes progress will be attacked. The cunning, proud, money-oriented, and at times vicious snake may shelter itself and not help with the conflict and unrest in the world.

The last Water Snake year in 1953, brought the Hydrogen bomb into the world and atomic bomb testing started in the US, Russia, and Australia. McCarthy had his anti-communist rampage and President Eisenhower fired any federal workers who took the “5^th” amendment, saying that meant they were “Reds” (communist). Fidel Castro began his rebellion in Cuba and China started their push through Korea which ended in the formation of North and South Korea. The most recent Snake year was in 2001, when the September 11, 2001 attack occurred. The 9/11 attack shut down air traffic in the US for 2 days and invoked the NATO agreement which backed strikes by the US against aggressors. The year of 2001 brought the Tiananmen Square incident in China, Anthrax mailings, the shoe bomber, and the US invaded Afghanistan. The Office of Homeland Security was established, the Patriot Act was enacted, and military tribunals were set up. During Snake years, countries tend to focus on internal issues and protect their “own” at any cost.

There are positives about Snake years when advances in areas that require intuition and intelligence are made. During the Water Snake Year of 1953, TV came into its own with broadcasting stations set up across the country and coast to coast televised shows and news events took place for the first time. Crick and Watson discovered the structure of DNA, Salk announced his Polio vaccine, Einstein announced his revised unified field theory, and Banting and Best isolated insulin. Transportation was reformed with the first west to east transcontinental nonstop jet service, the first helicopter passenger service, the first Corvette was manufactured, and Chuck Yeager reached Mach 2.4 in a rocket plane. In the 2001 Snake Year, a spacecraft landed on an asteroid, Mars Odyssey was launched, and the world had its first space tourist. The first draft of the human genome was published, the first artificial heart was created, Apple announced iTunes and released the iPod, Wikipedia went online, and China was granted normal trade relations with the US.

From the ashes of change during the 2012 Dragon Year, the 2013 Snake Year will bring more focus on the US economy and advancement of welfare, and harmony.

Designing an “ideal” 2013 calendar and planner for Hawaii

2012-11-06T10:06:00.000-10:00

Every year we have trouble finding a good calendar for planning and keeping track of our activities in Hawaii. Few stores on the island even carry daily planners and those that do run out quickly. We end up spending a lot of money for marginally useful calendars without any of the state holidays and celebrations that we like to keep track of in Hawaii.

We thought it would be easy to design a much better daily planner for 2013 with Hawaii holidays and celebrations. It turned out to be lot more work than we guessed to include everything we wanted and to research the many unique holidays and special days celebrated in Hawaii.

We wanted the calendar to have room to record food, calories, and weight so we could track the relationship between what we ate and our weight loss or gain each day, week, and month. We wanted a calendar with a place to write annual goals so we could easily review them every day. We have read several studies about goal setting that showed people who write down their goals have a greater chance of achieving them.

Every week we take some time to think about how we can improve our life and write down any insights or lessons learned, so we added a place to write them down in the planner every week.

We have been inspired by stories of how top athletes use visualizations to improve their performance. We want to keep visualizations of our future in our thoughts every day, so we included an area to write them down as well as an area to write our appreciations.

“Your Ideal Hawaii Calendar 2013: Daily Planner and Calories Counter” incorporates goal setting, calorie counting, weight tracking, visualizations, and affirmations with space to schedule and record monthly and daily activities. The planner has holidays, special days, and annual events celebrated in Hawaii with information about what is going on around the state every month. We left out photos to make as much space for writing as possible. The calendar is in paperback book form, because we think the wire bound calendars are not as easy to read or keep in a book shelf for later reference.

If you are looking for a 2013 calendar/planner, you may want to try this planner. We priced it at $8.99 on Amazon so it is not a big investment to try. If you find it useful or have ideas for improvements for next year, please let us know.

Gout and the Wheat Free Diet

2012-10-24T17:50:00.001-10:00

After a series of gout attacks in Hilo five years ago, I now carefully avoid foods I know cause my gout. I do not eat canola oil because of its uric acid content; corn-fed and rape-seed fed meats and fish; and sugars because they are all highly acidic and can bring on gout attacks. I also make sure my drinking water is not acidic. So, I was really surprised when I had another gout attack a week ago, after not having problems for so long.

Surprisingly, my last two gout attacks followed eating a lot of bread. The first episode happened after I ate pizza and bread with olive oil at a restaurant. I assumed at the time that the olive oil had been substituted with canola oil and was the cause of the attack. However, my most recent gout attack happened after I ate a lot of English muffins and French bread. I normally do not eat much bread and prefer rice and rice pasta with my meals. However, I tend to eat wheat when I am restricting my calories. Even though bread has never shown up on any list as a cause for gout, I am beginning to think it may be another food that is contributing to my gout attacks.

When we started researching the negative health effects of bread, we found that there is a “modern” wheat controversy. We did not realize that wheat today is very different than what we ate as kids, the result of intensive crossbreeding to make it shorter and hardier. Doctor Davis, author of “Wheat Belly”, claims this new dwarf wheat has a different protein structure and contains the starch amylopectin A which is absorbed in the body like a super sugar. According to Doctor Davis, eating wheat products, even organic whole-grain wheat makes you hungry, fat, and results in other side effects like arthritis, diabetes, and heart disease.

We are skeptical of miraculous health claims from diets, especially by doctors, however after reflecting on what we were eating during the times we felt really healthy over the past 30 years, it seems like it was when we had very little wheat in our diet. With the agony of my recent gout attack fresh in my mind, we were very willing to start on a no-wheat diet. Another motivation is that weight-loss, in particular belly fat, is a reported result of getting this starch and gluten out of the diet. Even on our restricted calorie diet, we have 10 stubborn pounds of fat that we can not keep off.

We found studies on the negative health effects of eating amylopectin starch. This type of starch is absorbed so rapidly into the blood stream that it causes a huge spike in insulin which causes calories to be stored as fat, even when eating a low calorie diet. This may explain why we are not losing weight eating low calorie breads and tortillas. Amylopectin also causes an increase in production of LDL cholesterol and inflammation in the body, similar to the effects of eating high fructose corn syrup.

We have been on a wheat-free diet for ten days now and we noticed right away that we felt much less hungry, but we haven’t had any weight loss yet. The relief from hunger may be due to taking gluten out of our diet, but since rice and potatoes have as much amylopectin starch as wheat, we may have to forego those foods to get the weight loss benefit. While contemplating that, we plan to remain wheat-free and see if we get some of the health benefits others are claiming just by removing wheat from their diet.

Health in Hawaii

2012-10-17T10:04:00.000-10:00

Every year Hawaii is in the headlines for having a low obesity rate; only Colorado has a slightly lower rate. Visitors to Hawaii often tell us how great they feel here. Their aches and pains disappear and they find themselves walking more and feeling energized. We had the same experience during our visits to Hawaii and it motivated us to come more and more often to recreate the feeling. We wondered if the health benefits we had during our 3-week vacations would subside if we lived in Hawaii full-time or would keep getting better every year.

In the five years we have lived here we have seen dozens of people with very serious health problems have huge improvements in their health. People who could barely walk were able to take long daily walks after a year or more of living in Hawaii. We have also had consistent improvement in our health, with slow weight loss and improved fitness. The changes have not been spectacular or quick, but we have answered the question about whether living in Hawaii full-time would result in our health getting better and better.

We believe the year-round warm weather and access to fresh vegetables, fruits, fish, and meats is a major part of the reason for our improved health. However, studies have shown the effect of location on health and that you are more likely to be obese if your neighbors are obese.

Communities with lower obesity rates have been shown to have similar physical characteristics including paths and sidewalks, local parks, and playgrounds.

A study at Columbia University showed that healthy food outlets nearby and farmer’s markets in the neighborhood also are related to lower obesity.

Another study found that having four or more businesses like a grocery store, pharmacy, restaurant or other stores within walking distance significantly increased the amount of walking among residents in a neighborhood. Four-way intersections were also associated with more walking. The age of the neighborhood and availability of parking were not associated with more walking.

We have lived in three communities on Hawaii Island in Hilo, Kona and Kohala and they all have stores within walking distance, nearby beaches and parks, pools, and farmer’s markets. In each community we watched our neighbors go on daily walks or runs. They shared the bounty from their gardens and fish they caught with us.

Before we moved to Hawaii, no matter how hard we exercised and restricted our diet, we got fatter and more out of shape every year. Every year we live in Hawaii, we feel better and are closer to our fitness and weight goals.

Ironman Championships 2013 : Extreme racing in Kona

2012-10-09T17:08:00.001-10:00

Once again, it is Ironman World Championships time in Kona and the athletes and their entourages have taken over the highways, roads, and pier in Kona practicing for the big race on Saturday. We marvel at the extreme and dangerous workouts of the Ironman athletes in Hawaii’s hot, tropical sun. They bicycle for a hundred miles next to fast moving traffic on a highway carved into a lava field with 100 degree temperatures and winds up to 45 miles a hour.

Observing the athletes pushing themselves so hard has interested us in the recent controversy over whether being an Ironman is good for your health or not. Until recently, it has been considered an undisputed fact that an Ironman-type training was good for your health.

Last year a cardiac specialist, Dr. John M, wrote in his blog that it was not healthy for the middle-aged heart to run in Ironman competitions and doing so causes inflammation, coronary calcium, and atrial fibrillation. His blog got a lot of comments from athletes with strong opinions about their Ironman status and extreme workouts and other blogs agreeing with the increased risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) and scarring in the heart from training and competing in marathons and events like the Ironman.

In June of this year Mayo Clinic Proceedings published a study on marathon runners that reported that 12% of apparently healthy marathon runners showed signs of heart damage called Phidippides cardiomyopathy (named after an ancient Greek messenger who died after a long run) related to their extreme conditioning. The study found that repeated, long distance racing can cause premature aging of the heart, stiffening of the heart muscles, and coronary artery calcification.

It makes a lot of sense to us that the Ironman competition is not healthy. The athletes in Kona look and act injured for days after completing the Ironman race and after observing the event over the past years, the participants act more like the event is a challenge they are trying to survive rather than something they are doing for good health.

Most studies state that daily exercise for 30 minutes to an hour is best for health and this seems about right to us. We feel really good after we walk and swim for 45 minutes to an hour. Any more than that and we are really sore the next day and the times we have exercised for many hours has often resulted in injuries that prevented us from exercising for days.

Though we find it inspiring to watch the world’s top endurance athletes compete in harsh conditions in Kona, unlike previous years we are more than satisfied with our 45 minute workouts after reading about the health risks of extreme exercise regimes.

Moving to Hawaii

2012-09-30T10:00:00.000-10:00

When we moved to Hawaii, we were faced with a lot of big decisions like what to bring, whether to ship our cars or buy new ones on the island, and how to transport everything over 2,000 miles across an ocean. We have come to realize how important the moving choices we made five years ago have been to our cost of living and quality of life in Hawaii.

We love getting emails with questions and moving stories from people drawn to the island. We are surprised that the frustrations people have about their move to Hawaii are so similar. Unlike moves to other states in the US, most newcomers are rarely able to find ways to change their circumstances once they have settled on the island.

We wrote a new book: Your Ideal Hawaii Move: A Guide for Moving to Hawaii Island, to consolidate everything we learned about moving to Hawaii in one place. The book describes how the decisions you will make during your move later affect your living expenses and lifestyle in Hawaii. Some seemingly minor choices can cost a lot in Hawaii.

For example, can you imagine having to ship your car to the mainland for warranty service or repairs? Some brands of cars have no dealers in the state of Hawaii. We know people who routinely transport their vehicle to California, fly there, and stay in a hotel to get warranty service on their car. Bringing the wrong make and model of car can be a major hardship and cost in Hawaii.

Another choice a lot of newcomers to Hawaii make is to retain their driver’s license from another state on the mainland. Many people living on Hawaii Island have never become legal residents of the state. Their choice prohibits them from participating fully in state and county activities, voting, and potential financial benefits of residency.

Living a few extra miles out of town is no big deal on the mainland, however in Hawaii where gas is $4 a gallon or more, every mile costs a lot more. Utilities and services that are taken for granted on the mainland may not be available in some neighborhoods. Choices made about where to live make a big difference in the cost and quality of life on the island.

The book is organized into sections addressing the differences in location on the island; advanced planning for the move; setting up after the move; ideas for managing the cost of living; getting a job; and the many fun activities there are on the island. Though the book is focused on moving to Hawaii Island, most of the content is applicable to moving to other islands in Hawaii.

The book is available in Kindle ($4.99) and paperback ($9.99) versions. You can view the table of contents and read the first chapter about our move from Northern California to Hilo by selecting “Look Inside” on Amazon.

LED TV power savings in Hawaii

2012-09-26T13:01:00.000-10:00

We are always looking for ways to cut our electricity bill in Hawaii where the cost of electricity is 450% higher than the average rate in the US. Our latest focus was on our 7 year-old 40-inch Samsung LCD TV. We assumed the cost of buying a new LED TV would eventually be returned to us from the savings on our electric bill.

We purchased a highly-rated 40-inch Westinghouse LED TV from Amazon.

We used our handy kilowatt meter to measure the wattage used and calculate our savings.

We measured our old LCD TV at 241 watts per hour.


241 watts read	Samsung LCD TV

We measured our new Westinghouse “energy star” LED TV at 60 watts an hour.


Westinghouse LED TV	60 watts read

Our new LED TV uses 75% less electricity than our old LCD TV!

We have our TV turned on about 4 hours a day so our old TV uses about 1 kilowatt hour during that time. The cost to us has been 45 cents a day (using our current cost of 45 cents per kilowatt hour in Hawaii). Using only ¼ of a kilowatt, our new TV will save us about 34 cents a day which adds up to about $123 a year. Since we paid $399 for the new TV, it will pay for itself in about three years from lower electric bills.

We bought the new LED technology TV now for more reasons than just saving on electricity costs. We are concerned that the conflict between China, Taiwan, and Japan may escalate in a way that makes affordable electronics from Asia a thing of the past. The cost of electricity in Hawaii keeps going up and we expect that it will continue to rise. The new TV is lighter, has a better sound system, and seems to have a clearer and brighter picture.

We are looking forward to seeing our reduced electric usage in our next electric bill.

You can find the Westinghouse LED HDTV we bought here.

You can find the Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor we used here.

Hawaii’s spectacular sunsets from volcanic emissions

2012-09-19T11:00:00.000-10:00

We are having gorgeous sunsets on Hawaii Island thanks to the increased volcanic activity from Kilauea Volcano. Volcanic ash makes the sunsets a bright reddish orange.

Unfortunately, the beautiful sunsets mean more volcanic emissions are covering the island. Recently, two new vents opened up on the volcano and the amount of sulfur dioxide emissions have increased. The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has measured sulfur dioxide emission rates of up to 900 tonnes or 1,984,140 pounds per day during September.

The Vog Measurement and Prediction Project (VMAP) at the University of Hawaii has created a very helpful map website that predicts the movement of sulfur dioxide (SO2) around the island. This month there have been many days with deep orange and red level readings in Volcano and the southern parts of the island. Kona has also been having some days with high levels of Vog.

Hawaii Department of Health has an SO2 advisory website with advisory levels based on the measured amounts at various detectors around the island. We took a snapshot on September 17^th, showing several hours of unhealthy red levels at Jaggar Museum in Volcanoes National Park.

We find even yellow levels of SO2 to be uncomfortable. After many hours of moderate levels, we feel fatigued and light headed. The best protection from unhealthy levels of SO2 is to stay inside and turn on the AC, if you have one. We have gas masks just in case. We are hoping that the Volcanic emissions subside, but we are enjoying the incredible sunsets while they continue.