First Impressions (10 things)

[Guest]

Yayyyy !! I finally made it, sorry I have been gone so long but the move had some hiccups but my wife and I (and dog) made it in one piece.

Mahalo to everyone who gave me any advice or helped me !


With that out of the way....

My first impressions of Puna..

1- More desolate than I thought it would be, but in a good way, i really enjoy the country.

2- Love the coqui frogs they put me to sleep at night and if you wake up at the right time as the sun rises you can hear the sounds of nature slowly fade over from frogs to birds, its beautiful

3- I do not like roosters. This one rooster (I call him the party rooster) was roosting at 2am...felt like he was on my roof and had one mission in life which was to roost at 2am as loud as he could.

4- Things are much closer than I though as far as driving distance. It takes me no time to get from Orchidland Estates to in town like Walmart and stuff.

5- You can tell people it feels magical here, but it has to be experienced.

6- Grocery store produce is stupid expensive. $2.50 for ONE haas avocado ? I was getting them 2 for dollar back home. I hope things change at the farmers market tomorrow.

7- T-Mobile is absolutely useless and even when I do get service its on their stone age EDGE network.

8- The local beef tastes great, and while i am at it so does Katsu Chicken.

9- If you make eye contact and "smile with your eyes", you will invoke love from others, and so far, it seems very genuine.

10- It gets pretty cold at night, but great for sleeping !


Thank you for sharing your island with me, I would be up for meeting anyone for food or a coffee and talk story !

[unknownjulie]

Welcome, and GL! Yes food here is ridiculously expensive. Even the fish. Hope you like Orchidland. I have a lot on 39th.

[GuyinHPP]

Congrats..welcome to the Big Island!

[Guest]

Here is a little video I made of our flight and arrival - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO3eQ0HL3Cs&feature=youtu.be

Only took 3 hours to upload on our super slow internet ! lol

[bananahead]

welcome!
nice to see a good post from a Puna newbie....

avos, mangos, etc should all be FREE, once you get some good connections.... some eco-village kine places I hang at down in lower Puna make you hold out your shirt bottom and they fill it full of avos before you can leave....

Coqui frogs are no big deal, good to see a newbie not bothered by them... some have bought their home after a visit during the day time,,, then find out they want to sell the first night after a sleepless night... it takes a few days but most do get used to them or even like them... Roosters are #@*%&! I agree, and you will see they crow all day long too, not just the early mornings...

Local fresh free range organic grass fed beef (ie $3.99 ground beef at Foodland) is unheard of for most of the mainland... I have friends on mainland that if they want similar, need to buy expensive frozen stuff from Argentina from places like Trader Joes etc....

Rural/desolate is right... ie best example... only 11 traffic lights in all of Puna!!... 11 in 500 square miles of land ...on average a single traffic signal for every 45 sq miles is 100% paradise IMO! lol

Puna = 500 sq miles/ 46,000 people... 90 people/sq mile
Oahu = 596 sq miles/980,000 people... 1,650 people/sq mile (not including tourists)

PS they call it 'Orchidland' because of all the Bamboo Orchids growing wild here in mid-upper Puna....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arundina
Our naturalized Bamboo Orchids are the thickest in the state... they were air seeded by plane here for cattle fodder in early 20th Century. Some people even try for sell the bamboo orchid keiki on eBay sometimes... They are not really blooming right now, but you will see soon how many we have when they 'go off'... we also have 2 naturalized fluted leaf ground type, the Philippine Ground Orchids (small purplish-pink orchids), and Chinese Ground Orchids aka 'Nun Orchid' (larger white/brown orchid)

aloha

******************************************************************
save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha

[Mimosa]

Welcome to Hawaii Island and Puna.
Nice your observations .
Always shop on the sales and coupons.
We have 38 varieties of avo and 30 varieties of citrus.
One rooster now and 60 hens for fresh daily free range eggs.
Smoke meat from the wild pig from time to time.
Make friends with a fisher person and have plenty fresh caught fish.
The farmers markets are good also.
Everything in season is cheaper.
We have friends in lower puna who have acres of avo's right now and a small fruit stand open daily on papaya farms road.They export all now to oahu to feed the millions,but their fruit stand is the best hidden gem in lower puna.
Again welcome and enjoy.

[shave_ice]

Like the others have said, definitely don't buy avos at the store. Are you renting or own your place? If you own your place, definitely plant some avo trees when you get the chance. Until then make friends with someone who has a tree. They seriously grow like weeds around here. I only have one acre and I'm not sure how many avocado trees I have. Unfortunately, none are in season right now, but it sometimes is nice to have a few months break from having an unlimited supply of them. Oh the problems we have here. []

Oh and I agree, roosters suck.

[Mimosa]

Try Uncle Roberts on wednesday afternoon evenings,great fresh fish and farmers market .
Good music and vide array of fresh produce.
We culled our roosters to the only one that never crows at night.The babies will be that same breed and seldom crow in the day.
The ones that crow at night are annoying yes,but the ones that stay quiet are the better breed.The ones that crow at night are now eaten by our ohana.
One rooster for the 60 hens is enough to have fresh fertilized eggs daily.
Currently getting over 6 dozen eggs a day,and the buyers are quite happy with our steady supply.
Yes cell phone is spotty in places as is slow internet in places.
But some places in Hilo have free wi-fi so that is where we go to access the fast that is lacking in most of puna.
Again welcome to Hawaii the Island.

[dreamoutloud]

Hi! So glad you made it! Congratulations! I loved your video! We live in Montana right now but have had a 5 year plan to move to the BI. We just made an offer on a house in HPP but it was not accepted Just waiting for another amazing one to come along.
Would love to meet up when we finally do get there! I would also love to hear about your moving experiences!
Best wishes to you in your new home! It is truly beautiful!
Laura

[lquade]

wonderful video, was nice to see puna from a newbies eyes, reminding me of how blessed we all are to live here. i also see you already have avos, breadfruit, pineapples etc growing. soon you will not need the stores at all!