Aloha!
Finally, after what feels like forever, I get to make my family's intro post! My husband, myself, and our 13 year old son will be moving to the BI this July. We will be caretakers of a house in the Kaloko Mauka area. We have decided that our much beloved city has outgrown us and we are ready to live in a much smaller community. We are also serious gardeners and are looking forward to the fertile soil, rain, cooler temps, and connecting with other like minded people.

This forum has been a great resource for me and I thank everyone for taking the time to answer people's questions. Of course, I do have a few question of my own! The house already has a satellite dish for cable and I have been told by Time Warner that there is no internet service in our area. So, what do people do for internet? Also, we will rent the house out sometimes as a VRBO. I have heard that on some other islands you must have a permit for this. However, I cannot figure out if this is the case for the BI.

Mahalo!
Tami

There is not much fertile soil in Kaloko Mauka. Depending on the elevation you still can grow things there but you will need to research what grows at your elevation. If there is no cable there than check with HawaiianTel for DSL. If that is not available either than satellite or dial-up are your options. Kaloko Mauka is zoned agricultural. As such, vacation rental is not allowed there. However, probably 80% of the vacation rentals are illegal on this island, and enforcement is basically non-existent. If your neighbors turn you in than you are in trouble though.

Aloha Tami!,

Welcome to the Kona Forum! If you have a satellite dish then at least you know you can get satellite TV and if DSL is not available through Hawaiian TelCom then you can go with Satellite Internet which is expensive. But if you get Cell phone service up there then you can also use your cell phone service for Internet. And as John said you can resort to dial-up if necessary. I'd almost rather not have Internet if I had to use dial-up.

If you are only going to be the caretakers of the house then I doubt you will get in trouble if you are being paid by the owner to do it, or if it is part of your job. The owner will be responsible if it is an illegal rental. As John also stated do your research first and find out what you can grow up there. The vegetation changes dramtically as you go up in elevation. The nice thing is you won't be too far from town so if you need anything you can take a trip and pick up your supplies.

Where are you moving from?

What do you think where Austin is, in West Virginia?! (Well it could be in Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Nevada or Oregon, right?)

Austin is in her title! I didn't read the title!!!!

Actually, I love Austin. Of course I have not been there since the mid 90's. So I don't know what it is like anymore. But the time I spent there was wonderful even tho I had to work and be away from my wife for a week at a time. At least I was able to go home on the weekends. Best BBQ in the world is in Austin. The people I worked with were so nice to me knowing I was away from home. I was always invited out to lunch everyday and to dinner every night. They even took me shooting during lunch sometimes. I even partied on that one street in downtown with all the bars (I forgot the name of the street ).

haha! you are too kind! Austin (yes Texas) is amazing but it has become too big, fancy pants, hipster for me. When my family moved here there were 50,000 people. Now the metro is over 1 million.

If VRBO is not legal, we will not do it. Our partners have been coming to Kona for over 40 years and at one time, ran a bee keeping business for decades. We have great respect for the land and want to contribute to the community, ie pay our taxes! I know they will definitely make sure that the proper permits are in order, whatever we decide to do.

Thanks for the heads up on the soil. Amendments will be needed for sure and doesn't worry me. You should see the things I have grown in our limestone juke soil here AND it never rains here anymore! I am also a big foodie and cook so I am looking forward too going local.

btw- i have loved all of the restaurant suggestion. Sounds like Kona could stand to have a good Mexican joint. Guess I will have to get that fix by cooking it myself!

Texas?! I somehow missed that on the list of Wikipedia! There are probably 10 restaurants that call themselves "Mexican" here, but they all are terrible, some even worse than that, except Tacos El Unico, which is a REAL Mexican restaurant.

Austin is having a terrible drought and heat. People are buying water tanks to have water delivered. Traffic has become a nightmare. The sleepy Texas town is long gone.

Sad. I used to like Austin and considered moving there at one time in my life.