Why Oh Why Hawaii?

Hawaii? Seems an odd choice for us to choose as this year's exploratory winter trip. Not because it isn't a perfectly wonderful place to visit, of course. But because for a married couple in search of a new home overseas that offers a higher quality of life at a lower cost and the chance to experience a different culture, we've chosen to stay in the US and research a place famous for its high cost of living. It is an even stranger choice when you consider how our five months in Fiji pretty much convinced Deborah that living on a tropical island was not for her. Yet here we are on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Our reasoning? Although Hawaii is part of the United States, it is 2600 miles from the mainland and clearly like a world apart. Its rich mix of ethnicities – native Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Southeast Asian, American (mainland), European, Pacific Islander – reinforce the notion that you're not in Kansas anymore. Still, in Hawaii you have first world infrastructure (for the most part) with good roads, a reliable power grid and water you can drink. It's also easy and economical to fly home to the west coast. There's still the overpriced, mediocre American heath care system to deal with, and some things are indeed more expensive – real estate, electricity, gas, imported packaged foods, for example. But if you shop smartly and make some reasonable lifestyle adjustments, Hawaii can be what one book title suggests: an affordable paradise. And the weather's not too bad either.

Our plan, such as it is, is to do a 3 ½ week house sit in Waikoloa Village on the Big Island, venturing out on day trips from that home base. We'll also hook up with a realtor during that time to check out housing options in that region. When our house sitting duties are done we'll circle the island exploring other places of interest with their varied climates and amenities. If our circle tour turns up one or two promising locations for a future home we'll go back to them and park ourselves for awhile to get a sense of what it's like to actually live there. We might also pop over to Maui for a week or two. We bought a one way ticket so we can't say exactly when we'll be back or if we'll find it all too expensive and instead bail to the more budget friendly environs of someplace like Mexico for a few weeks. We're staying flexible.

Sunset on the Big Island