Paradise Lost...

[Russ Roberts]

Re: Paradise Lost...

Like Craig and the rest of the "expatriots", my wife and I abandoned Honolulu for the wild frontier of the Big Island in 1975. We've haven't looked by since. Living in Laupahoehoe along the Hamakua Coast is one of the best ideas we came up with. We plan to build a home on a 2-acre lot in Orchidland one of these days and go solar. Honolulu has its charm, but for me, I like the slower pace on the Big Island. Of course, Hawaii County is being slowly inundated with development and home prices are climbing. Some of the more questionable projects (i.e. Clifto development north of Kona) have been rejected for now, so we may buy some time to correct our growing infrastructure problems (water, roads, schools). Each to their own, but Honolulu's attractions no longer are important to many of us "exiles". As for the politicians, the talk of potholes and traffic will just obscure the real problem of overpopulation, which no one in the public eye and on the public payroll will tackle. Sadly, people are the problem, and who wants to cast the first stone? All our family can do is live in peace with our neighbors, become as self-sufficient as we can, and massage the political process with hopes of making some positive change. Thanks for the excellent posts. Aloha from the KKBG-FM newroom....Russ

[mel]

Re: Paradise Lost...

Like Craig and the rest of the "expatriots", my wife and I abandoned Honolulu for the wild frontier of the Big Island in 1975. We've haven't looked by since. Living in Laupahoehoe along the Hamakua Coast is one of the best ideas we came up with.

Someday I would like to move back to the Big Island. I was born and raised in Honokaa a few more miles up the coast. Most areas along the Hamakua Coast are lush with nice greenery. I try to go back to the Big Island at least 2 times a year.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Paradise Lost...

My wife works in Honokaa and it's a beautiful place with the lush rolling hills and deep valleys, much nicer than Kea'au but also more expensive too I hear.

Russ I have no idea why you'd want to move from Laupahoehoe to Orchardland. I'd rather stay where you are now.

But instead of contributing to and being affected by the problems of Honolulu, we decided to move to the Big Island and leave those problems behind. We did our part in depopulating Oahu. Honolulu was convenient but because of it's infrastructure, you take things for granted such as trash pickup which kinda desensitizes you to recycling and abusing our precious resources like water.

Living on the Big Island gives you a better awareness of the Aina because there's so much of it and the Mana is incredable here.

[Russ Roberts]

Re: Paradise Lost...

Thanksf for the nice post, Greg. My wife was the school librarian at Honokaa from '76 to '83...we lived below the Brantley Center and really enjoyed Honokaa. I would rather live in Laupahoehoe, but our property is in Orchidland...so we may become Puna-ites one of these days. Until then, the Hamakua Coast is just about right. We have a few years to finally make up our minds. My better half really digs her job as school librarian at Laupahoehoe, so we may find a way to build in that area.
Meanwhile, back to the newsroom....Russ

[Konaguy]

Re: Paradise Lost...

I have lived in Kona my entire life. 28 years and counting.
I remember Kailua village used to be this sleepy fishing
village. There used to be one stop light in the middle
of town.

How thing have mushroomed over the last 20 or years.
Its gotten to the point, my parents are building
a second home Ka'u so they can have peace and quiet