Any advice is welcomed

Thanks!

7/7/2010 11:21:10 AM

Good luck Carl!

7/7/2010 11:22:53 AM

what are you doing there? Im jealous.

7/7/2010 11:38:59 AM

hot damn! when are you moving?

please send me pictures of the turtle bay resort. getting married in oahu in dec.

7/7/2010 11:49:25 AM

My husband was stationed in kaneohe bay. It was really expensive to live there but there is a lot of awesome stuff to do.

The military took care of moving his stuff

Do you have any specific questions?

7/7/2010 12:01:07 PM

Don't vote for Linda Lingle.

Travel to the outer islands when you get sick of the crowds. sometimes you can find cheap 25$ flights (one way).

Take your shoes off when you go in peoples houses.

Learn to dive for lobster.

befriend a local, they will tell you everywhere that is better than the things in the brochures.

get a Hawaiian drivers licenses, then when you do tourist things (hotels, rental cars, etc), ask for the kamaina (Ka-mah-eye-naa) discount.

7/7/2010 12:48:16 PM

My advice is for you to take me with you

7/7/2010 12:51:30 PM

My advice is for you to take me with you

7/7/2010 1:31:28 PM

http://www.marukaihawaii.com/ is where I got most of my grocerys. Expect sticker shock, a box of cereal at the grocery store will be $5 or $6. I went to Chinatown on the weekends for cheap produce and other stuff, enjoyed the atmosphere. A bicycle is essential for downtown IMO, but get a really, really good lock.

7/7/2010 1:50:58 PM

all of a sudden, Oahu becomes the gay capital of Hawaii

7/7/2010 1:52:43 PM

My family was stationed in kaneohe bay. I was too young to remember it tho. The beaches were fantastic everywhere, you don't need to go to Honolulu side to get the great snorkeling and all that.

7/7/2010 2:14:20 PM

The best snorkeling is away from the tourists.

I enjoyed my time there, but wouldn't want to live on oahu. Too small and depressingly touristy.

7/7/2010 3:01:20 PM

kailua is a cool place to live. really small and lanakai beach is there which is one of the best beachs imo

get in with someone in the military and maybe they'll hook you up with some tax free food, alcohol etc.

hawaii is amazing and yes, very expensive. i dont know how people do it. and i agree with getting a bike. don't cheap out too much or it will rust beyond use within a year. also lock everything down & dont have good faith in people, its a tourist destination, even if you live there, and you shit will get stolen at some point.

take advantage of it!! how long are you going to be living there?

7/7/2010 4:11:26 PM

I'm here!

I can see what you mean about touristy, but I've learned that that's only one part. Yeah, it is expensive, but it's within our means.

7/17/2010 12:18:33 PM

i loved Oahu when i lived there. learn to surf if you don't already know how. even if you're just piddling around on a longboard.

7/17/2010 12:26:39 PM

definitely go visit the other islands.
And try to avoid downtown Honolulu like the plague

7/17/2010 1:13:16 PM

^what are some other islands you'd recommend? what are some things to do on them other than just sit on the beach?

7/18/2010 1:45:15 PM

Learn to kiteboard and post pictures so humandrive and I can be insanely jealous!

7/18/2010 1:58:22 PM

^^bttt

7/21/2010 12:57:55 PM

^

Big Island. :

Go see the lava. Wake up at 3 a.m. and drive down there before any park rangers are attending the stations, walk (carefully) across the old lava flows towards the bright glowing lava coming down of the cliffs. Be very careful though, take a stick with you and poke the ground in front of you as you walk to be sure you dont' step on any soft lava.

Hike into Waimanu . it's on the Hamakua coast. drive to waipieo valley and then it's about a 10 mile hike over the cliffs along the coast. very remote, HUGE black sand beaches, I think 15 different waterfalls. You can catch prawns in the rivers and fish in the ocean. If you like the outdoors at all, you'll love this. If you want a similar beach, but no hike, just go to waipeo, or drive to kohala and go to polalu valley. Usually you can find glass fishing floaters washed up on the beaches here.

Drive up mauna kea to the observatories. Beautiful views of the island and the pacific.

Walk around bayfront in Hilo. That's real local hawaii, hit up the farmers market on wednesdays and saturday/sunday.

7/21/2010 1:28:13 PM

Quote :

"Wake up at 3 a.m. and drive down there before any park rangers are attending the stations"

Why's this?

If it's to do something you're not allowed/supposed to do, that's *really* not cool. Regulations and restrictions are in place for a reason.
If it's to avoid entrance fees, remember that the parks are SORELY underfunded, but still put the money they're given to exceptionally good use, and regularly stretch it to fund additional projects. Basically, of any government agency, they're the ones that deserve honesty when it comes to paying fees and giving them your money.

7/21/2010 1:41:21 PM

Quote :

"Why's this? "

Mostly it's so you can see the lava. It looks black in the daylight so you need to get there during the night for a) safety when you're walking, and b) It's a lot more fun to play with.

But yes, It is definitely not something the park rangers encourage, because it is dangerous. It's not against the rules however, I just don't like explaining myself and talking to people. Also, if you do it in the day when hundreds of people/little children are around, they will follow you and likely get hurt.

As far as money, I agree, IF there is one organization that I don't mind taking my money, it's the national parks. I always had a year pass, so I wasn't avoiding the fees. Anyone else should stick a donation in the slot if they go afterhours.

7/21/2010 1:48:09 PM

Ok

7/21/2010 2:40:37 PM

What about on Lanai and Kauai?

7/21/2010 6:36:16 PM

hang out with dog the bounty hunter

thats a MUST

7/21/2010 6:39:13 PM

^^ Never been to lanai, Kauai was cool, I've only gone once though. The beaches there are much better than the big islands. You can hike the alakai swamp, wettest place in the US (Earth?).

All the other islands are tiny, just drive around them and figure it out, but if you're not on the big island or oahu, the beaches are going to be the main attractions

7/21/2010 7:05:02 PM

Kauai was excellent. easily my favorite of the three islands i visited.

7/21/2010 9:56:20 PM

^ what are some things you did on Kauai?

^^How did you hop between islands? RDU to Kauai was ~$625, but just Kauai to Maui was $200. Read online there were two main airlines, one went bankrupt, the other royally screws everyone. The ferry system went bankrupt too. Hmmm

7/22/2010 10:19:15 PM

i was in Kauai with a friend - who lived there - for thanksgiving break. we just explored kipu falls, the blue room, drove around and checked out a bunch of beaches and went surfing. kipu was awesome. you had to hike through a corn field on a path into the woods and there was a waterfall with a pool at the bottom and a badass rope swing. the blue room was just a cave that where you could swim into a room (it required diving below the wall and up on the other side) and the light reflected through the water and up onto the room's ceiling. it was actually a lot cooler than i'm probably describing.

Kipu: http://www.hawaiiweb.com/kauai/sites_to_see/KipuFalls.htm
Blue Room: http://www.bestplaceshawaii.com/tips/hidden_places/blue_room.html
http://www.wailuabay.com/articles/blueroom.html

if i recall correctly, you used to be able to buy airfare vouchers for inter-island flights. you could get them from travel agents and they could be used like bus passes where you just arrived at the airport for any flight and it was first come first serve. i talked to a few people who commuted from other islands to oahu for work this way. i want to say there were about $50 per one way voucher. don't quote me on that price though, it's been since 2001.

[Edited on July 22, 2010 at 10:42 PM. Reason : google produces many results for kipu and the blue room]

[Edited on July 22, 2010 at 10:44 PM. Reason : ;]

7/22/2010 10:38:45 PM

Yeah sticker shock is right - I made pictures of $4 40s at the grocery store because I didn't think anybody would believe it. That was late 06 so with inflation it's probably like $11 for a Cobra.

7/23/2010 9:04:16 AM