08-07-2009, 02:28 PM
Alo-hi, Blake. Like many, I came with a list of internet listings in hand and with the indulgence of a very nice real estate agent (thanks, John), I did a couple of lightning tours of Puna. I was attracted to Puna because when I did a global search of the Hawaiian Islands, property always popped up cheaper plus you got more "land". But then when I saw Puna I felt a connection and thought to myself, "This is not only cheaper, but it has its own special character! More exotic, greener, great air, an unusual light, a looming and sometimes brooding presence and crazy guys doing naked handstands! I like it (except for the handstands). I tend to avoid gay people and gay ghettoes as I've found I don't automatically have anything in common with such people, anymore than a heterosexual has an instant happy connection with another person just because they are heterosexual, but then I realized that Puna tends to attract just such a gay person! A bunch of individualists. Pretty neat.
But if I had it to do all over again, I would choose Waimea. I had never been to Waimea when I bought my place. When I first saw Waimea, I said "Wow-Mea!". It's a happy place full of nice, clean professionals and quasi-professionals who all smell like Irish Spring anti-bacterial soap. You have to be very covert when you are sniffing them. Best place to do that is at Foodland, which is the BEST GROCERY STORE on the entire damn island (Foodland Shopping Center-- where the signs say something like "Howdy" and "Y'all Come back"....or maybe it's "Whoa" and "Giddyup"). Just pretend to be examining the fifteen varieties of $20-a-bag taro chips while you do it. The lots tends to be small there, but here's the deal -- you can have the East Side AND the West Side AT THE SAME TIME. I love that. Dry/wet. Wet/dry....then go to Foodland and get some more Mehana Beer or any exotic liquor you can think of (passionfruit/banana rum anyone?). They have it all! Best souvenirs, too. Waimea kind of resembles a small Northern California town that has been picked up by a mighty wind and set down on a volcanic island between several "mountains" (i.e., deadly volcanoes). You just know that every other person there is an astronomer and can talk red shift literally until the cows come home. And there they are! The cows! All over the place! And Merriman's is there - a serious restaurant with food so fresh it instantly regenerates brain cells you thought forever dead from passionfruit/banana rum poisoning.
You can get to Puna from Waimea very easily...and then come home! You can also hold your nose and slide down to Kona if you want to see a few stunned Californians walking around in circles asking where's the Kona Brew Company or where they can see, touch and harass turtles. SHOW ME THE DAMN TURTLES.
Please be aware that there is not a single gay person in Waimea...other than some hard-riding, incredibly fit,brown-skinned, doe-eyed and very lonesome cabelleros whose gauche idea of a good time is drinking a 24 pack of Mehana and rolling in the hay in a barn --a barn with a view of Mauna Kea, covered in a moist and thick mist. Geez! Can I get some culture around here??!! No, for that, you will have to go to Hawi and wander around aimlessly in a bookstore. Use hairspray before you go!
Anyway, I would look in Waimea and I would look hard. I really love it there and in a sense, it is the center of the island. It is gloriously sunny during the day, and deliciously cool at night. At times, you feel like you are in Big Sur...but a very short and spectacular drive and you remember that you are on an island.
Meanwhile back in Puna, I do like the area where my home is located: Kaloli Point, in Hawaiian Paradise Park (although we have had some unwanted excitement lately). The area below tenth in HPP tends to be drier. There are some AMAZING bargains down there right now. Here's one: http://hilobrokers.com/cgi-bin/hb?MLS226343 On an acre and fully fenced for your dogs. The decor can be changed out. Roof doesn't go completely over the lanai, but the lanai does go all the way around.
Here's a house on the point that was, I believe, originally listed at over $700,000: http://hilobrokers.com/cgi-bin/hb?MLS208531
Here's a really small, cute, and reasonable one on the point, on half an acre: http://hilobrokers.com/cgi-bin/hb?MLS225628
Another place I really like is Kapoho Beach Lots. When I was looking, I was still partnered, and the plan was for my partner to work as a nurse in Hilo while I stayed home, played ukulele and learned what pots and pans are for (they mystify me). Kapoho was just too far...and the fact that the land just adjacent to it was a flaming BBQ just a few decades ago deterred me. But the weather is great down there. They have their own warm pond that they can swim AND pee in and they have a gate that will hit your car about 3/4 of the way back when you slip in behind someone. You won't have a problem if you have a VW bug or a Miata. Bougainvillea grows beautifully in Kapoho and the blues are just a little bluer and the greens a little greener down there. And on those rare occasions when Pele rips a seam, the fountains are just a little more fuh-LAMING down there, too. Here's one in Kapoho: http://hilobrokers.com/cgi-bin/hb?MLS223427
I also kind of like Seaview. Seaview is too far from Hilo for me, but they have a tight community and their own circus for crissakes. They are also pretty close to one of my favorite places on the island: Kalani. Kalani is a "resort" for people looking for their third eyes....often finding that third eye in the creases of another. Kalani has --and I mean this-- the best food on the island. Very fresh. Anyway, my only concern about Seaview is that the lots are a little small, and it seems like noise would carry. I would spend a night there first. I tried VERY VERY HARD to spend a night there, but, uh, you know, uh, never got the invite! Here's a house in Seaview: http://hilobrokers.com/cgi-bin/hb?MLS224972
Puna Beach Palisades is further down the Red Road. The Red Road isn't red. Unless you are a fool enough to bicycle on it, in which case there just could be red everywhere. Anyway, Puna Beach Palisades has a lot of "heat" to it because there is so much black lava there and, it is a LEETLE close to the Pele action. Nonetheless, great weather, a good community and some ocean views. Here's one in Puna Beach Palisades: http://www.alohaliving.com/RealEstate/Pr...gID=224571+
Another place I really like on the island is South Kona. But they really have a wild rooster problem, and sleep is impossible. They also have a problem now with the the smoke from Kilauea. It's unrelenting these days.
So, that's my little tour. Y'all come back now. Giddyup.
But if I had it to do all over again, I would choose Waimea. I had never been to Waimea when I bought my place. When I first saw Waimea, I said "Wow-Mea!". It's a happy place full of nice, clean professionals and quasi-professionals who all smell like Irish Spring anti-bacterial soap. You have to be very covert when you are sniffing them. Best place to do that is at Foodland, which is the BEST GROCERY STORE on the entire damn island (Foodland Shopping Center-- where the signs say something like "Howdy" and "Y'all Come back"....or maybe it's "Whoa" and "Giddyup"). Just pretend to be examining the fifteen varieties of $20-a-bag taro chips while you do it. The lots tends to be small there, but here's the deal -- you can have the East Side AND the West Side AT THE SAME TIME. I love that. Dry/wet. Wet/dry....then go to Foodland and get some more Mehana Beer or any exotic liquor you can think of (passionfruit/banana rum anyone?). They have it all! Best souvenirs, too. Waimea kind of resembles a small Northern California town that has been picked up by a mighty wind and set down on a volcanic island between several "mountains" (i.e., deadly volcanoes). You just know that every other person there is an astronomer and can talk red shift literally until the cows come home. And there they are! The cows! All over the place! And Merriman's is there - a serious restaurant with food so fresh it instantly regenerates brain cells you thought forever dead from passionfruit/banana rum poisoning.
You can get to Puna from Waimea very easily...and then come home! You can also hold your nose and slide down to Kona if you want to see a few stunned Californians walking around in circles asking where's the Kona Brew Company or where they can see, touch and harass turtles. SHOW ME THE DAMN TURTLES.
Please be aware that there is not a single gay person in Waimea...other than some hard-riding, incredibly fit,brown-skinned, doe-eyed and very lonesome cabelleros whose gauche idea of a good time is drinking a 24 pack of Mehana and rolling in the hay in a barn --a barn with a view of Mauna Kea, covered in a moist and thick mist. Geez! Can I get some culture around here??!! No, for that, you will have to go to Hawi and wander around aimlessly in a bookstore. Use hairspray before you go!
Anyway, I would look in Waimea and I would look hard. I really love it there and in a sense, it is the center of the island. It is gloriously sunny during the day, and deliciously cool at night. At times, you feel like you are in Big Sur...but a very short and spectacular drive and you remember that you are on an island.
Meanwhile back in Puna, I do like the area where my home is located: Kaloli Point, in Hawaiian Paradise Park (although we have had some unwanted excitement lately). The area below tenth in HPP tends to be drier. There are some AMAZING bargains down there right now. Here's one: http://hilobrokers.com/cgi-bin/hb?MLS226343 On an acre and fully fenced for your dogs. The decor can be changed out. Roof doesn't go completely over the lanai, but the lanai does go all the way around.
Here's a house on the point that was, I believe, originally listed at over $700,000: http://hilobrokers.com/cgi-bin/hb?MLS208531
Here's a really small, cute, and reasonable one on the point, on half an acre: http://hilobrokers.com/cgi-bin/hb?MLS225628
Another place I really like is Kapoho Beach Lots. When I was looking, I was still partnered, and the plan was for my partner to work as a nurse in Hilo while I stayed home, played ukulele and learned what pots and pans are for (they mystify me). Kapoho was just too far...and the fact that the land just adjacent to it was a flaming BBQ just a few decades ago deterred me. But the weather is great down there. They have their own warm pond that they can swim AND pee in and they have a gate that will hit your car about 3/4 of the way back when you slip in behind someone. You won't have a problem if you have a VW bug or a Miata. Bougainvillea grows beautifully in Kapoho and the blues are just a little bluer and the greens a little greener down there. And on those rare occasions when Pele rips a seam, the fountains are just a little more fuh-LAMING down there, too. Here's one in Kapoho: http://hilobrokers.com/cgi-bin/hb?MLS223427
I also kind of like Seaview. Seaview is too far from Hilo for me, but they have a tight community and their own circus for crissakes. They are also pretty close to one of my favorite places on the island: Kalani. Kalani is a "resort" for people looking for their third eyes....often finding that third eye in the creases of another. Kalani has --and I mean this-- the best food on the island. Very fresh. Anyway, my only concern about Seaview is that the lots are a little small, and it seems like noise would carry. I would spend a night there first. I tried VERY VERY HARD to spend a night there, but, uh, you know, uh, never got the invite! Here's a house in Seaview: http://hilobrokers.com/cgi-bin/hb?MLS224972
Puna Beach Palisades is further down the Red Road. The Red Road isn't red. Unless you are a fool enough to bicycle on it, in which case there just could be red everywhere. Anyway, Puna Beach Palisades has a lot of "heat" to it because there is so much black lava there and, it is a LEETLE close to the Pele action. Nonetheless, great weather, a good community and some ocean views. Here's one in Puna Beach Palisades: http://www.alohaliving.com/RealEstate/Pr...gID=224571+
Another place I really like on the island is South Kona. But they really have a wild rooster problem, and sleep is impossible. They also have a problem now with the the smoke from Kilauea. It's unrelenting these days.
So, that's my little tour. Y'all come back now. Giddyup.
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