Island Fever

U.S.A. Hawaii

Published

Anyone else wanna comment on island fever? Wanna share your thoughts, perspective, etc? - Lisa ;-)

For those of you on the mainland, who are thinking about moving here, here's a post for you!

We live on the island of Maui. My husband is working on the island of Kauai this week. He told me that's where Jurassic Park was filmed; the island is tropical, green, gorgeous! I'm thinking about joining him for the week-end. Back home, if we wanted to take a week-end vacation, we would

$ 30 fill up my gas tank, drive 200-300 miles to another city or small town,

$ 200 hotel room for 2 nights

$ 30 fill up my gas tank, drive back home (my car was smaller, got better mileage)

That's $ 260 total + meals.

Here, in Hawai'i, it's another story. I just checked prices:

$ 260 airfare Maui to Oahu to Kauai for 2 people

$ 100 rental car for 2 days

$ 200 hotel room for 2 nights

$ 200 airfare Kauai to Oahu to Maui for 2 people

That's $ 760 total + meals

My husband is on Kauai for business already, and his company will pay for his plane ticket back home, so that will save us some money. Minus the cost of his plane ticket, it will cost $ 530 for me to join him, and us to make it a week-end vacation. Why do I write this... to let you nurses on the mainland know that Hawai'i is an expensive place to live... in more ways than you think. -- Lisa ;-)

I can relate...sort of. We are military and move every 2-3 years. By the time we are grounded it's up up and away again. It's hard but really haev no choice. Thank god the hubs only has 6 years left in until retirement. We are thinking of Ohau next time for a move sinec we will never be able to just move to Hawaii after he's out.

Last month, I called nurse finders. Explained my situation. She said that she would be happy to hire me as a CNA. But, she's got lots of CNAs who are looking for work, and she can't find work for the ones she's got.

Aloha Lisa,

Me and my fam were contemplating a move back to HI and the big island in particular but your post has me concerned. I'm a recent cna graduate and will have a 1 year experience in the field before we potentially move in july. is it really that difficult for cna's to find work on the islands or is that just specific to the island your on?

Mahalo

Short answer... Difficult? no. Near impossible... yes.

Read the last 18 months of posts. Read about EXPERIENCED nurses trying to find jobs, today vs. 4 years ago. Read about new grads getting jobs today, vs. 4 years ago when the economy was great. Read ALL posts by WindwardOahuRN. Read about why employers don't want to hire people new to the islands. Read the thread about the Craigslist ad.

No reason to re-type what other people already wrote. You will find... the answers are already on this website. Read. Read. Read. Believe! --Lisa ;-)

Lisa

looks like I'll be taking my puter to bed with me for some late night reading lol, mahol nui loa for your help

uscg:

you're welcome. and thanks for understanding. the people who live here get the same questions over - and over - and over - and over again. i get tired of answering the same qs. i'm sure other posters do too.

city-data.com click visit forum click hawai'i also has some great info (for those of you who don't already know about that website)

one other thought... do you want to be stuck as a cna? if you move to the big island, can you do nursing school there? i know you can get your rn and bsn on oahu & maui. i don't know if you can take rn classes on bi.

if it was me, i would get my rn and bsn on the mainland, work for 2 years as an rn, completely pay off my student loans, and then move to hawai'i. in the year 2015 or later. -- lisa ;-)

I totally understand where your coming from on the answering questions, I actually did read through some of the posts but at the time didnt have time to read through all of them before I posted my question. As for being "stuck" as a cna I dont really see it as that. I love what I'm doing, the reason I wont go any farther is I have this thing with sticking people with needles. I know, sounds kinda dumb, but its just something I cant do. I can clean up bodily excretions all day long but giving a shot or drawing blow or anything else that involves a needle makes me sick. I can administer insulin however but thats only cuz i cant actually see the needle on the unit we use lol.

Lisa, Windward and everyone else who has posted here I'd like to give you all kudos. Thanks for your bluntness in some of your posts, sometimes the best aloha is the tough kind. Windward I particularly found your post on the charactaristics needed to live on island very helpful and while I consider myself to have most if not all of those I dont think I can say the same for my wife (or the 2 kids we'd be bringing with) so I'm afraid that soon after she was fob she would want to be bob (back on boat) lol. Also thanks for all the links, theyve been VERY helpful. I had contemplated subscribing to the local papers but wasnt sure if it was actually possible to have them shipped off island or not. Definately will be persuing that option asap. Lisa thankyou for sharing your moment of emotion with everyone, my wife has never been the materialistic type but I could so see my her in that story as she does have a few things that would either have to be sold or left behind that she recieved from relatives that are no long with us that would certainly cause that kind of reaction eventually. Even tho I havent been back in almost 40 years I still love the islands and will always consider them home but I think in the best interest of my wifes sanity and not having Hawaii become something we (see she) regret its probably best that "we" stay on the mainland :crying2: and get our Hawaii where we can (ie polynesian festivals, hula classes, internet radio and some day an actual trip home). Mahalo nui loa again for all your posts and Lisa in particular for your patience in dealing with another mainlander asking the same old tired questions. Malama pono and maybe someday soon we can make it there and we can buy a round of drinks and thank you all personally.

Aloha

Awwww... shucks! Ya' made me blush! :bugeyes:

Glad I could help. Glad we could help. Glad you see that "tough aloha" can be the best aloha. Happy you took time to read, listen & believe. Take care of your family. :kiss That's a non-romantic kiss on the cheek. They do that here on the islands. -- Lisa ;-)

yay me i made someone blush hehe :yeah: oh yeah, if theres one thing i DO know its tough aloha, we have 5 kids and have to dish that out from time to time. i knew that about the kisses, my kumu hula taught us that at our first class. shoulda seen the look on the wifes face when a total stranger kissed me on the cheek :kiss

While driving (or should I say sitting) on the 405 fwy(Los Angeles) I looked up to see a bill board that read "Hawaii-changes your priorities in life." My next trip was a one way. I have been told,by more than one person, the islands either embraces you or rejects you. The high price of this and that is there to keep most away which I don't mind. And BTW-I no longer look to bill boards for life advice-they are against the law to be up here!

So you can keep your reasonalably priced whatevahs and never know the taste of a fresh mango or the intense blue of the water reflect on the eye where it hits your insides with a rush....yes, keep your resonably priced gas to sit on the fwy to read bill boards.

Dear Lisa,

Thank you for emailing back! It seems when I read all these threads that Hawaii to many people is paradise and thats what they expect everyday to be there. Like a happy ending destination? I know Hawaii is just another state but I swear being there on vacation was one of the happiest times the beauty of every island made me wana cry every time I had to leave!! Im not looking for a place to make me happy I love my job and I love being a nurse no matter where I am. I think what i am looking for out of this is to be able to say that I did it, like a thing to do before you die. Does that make sense? Id probably be one of the only people on the beach applying sunscreen every 20 minutes but such is life! I would miss my family back home but how much would I regret never taking this chance when I get it? You seem to be the person to go to about Hawaii here, which island seems to have the best hospitals plus living situation or is such an island non existant? Thank you for all your help!!! Aloha!!1

Specializes in Critical Care.
koi, thank you for the post!

for those of you not good at math... 640 sq feet... put another way... that's 20 feet x 32 feet.

depending on your credit and down payment, if you bought it for $ 260,000 your mortgage payment could be $1500 to $2200 per month. i'm guessing it's a condo. let's not forget an association fee. that could be $200 - $500 per month, on top of your mortgage.

dear mainlanders,

if you have the money to vacation here once a year, and to see hawai'i as paradise, relaxing, calm, soothing...

if hawai'i could be an escape for you... why on earth would you want to live here?

by the way, as people are reading these posts, if you like what someone wrote (me or anyone else), please click kudos and thank that person. mahalo!

i wasn't surprised in the least to see this thread was filled with warnings to the mainlanders about the pitfalls and enormous obstacles of relocating, living, and working in hawaii. the thinly veiled attempts to discourage others from moving there by people who moved there less than a year prior is funny.

i think that maybe you don't really want people to move in on your turf, and that you're not really too concerned with what their hopes and dreams are. i would never let an anonymous poster on a message board influence my reality.

if it's so bad lisa, why did you move there and why don't you move back to the mainland? lol.

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