And now, for a geography lesson

I get asked, pretty regularly, about where we live in Hawaii, which island, which city, how far away from Honolulu we are, etc.  I thought I would put all the answers to that in one place.  So here’s all the answers to those questions.  Everything in this post is accurate, unless I get it wrong.  

The state of Hawaii is made up of a string of islands.  There are 4 main islands that you hear about most often.  From west to east, the 4 main islands are Kauai, Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii, also known as the “Big Island.”  That’s right.  There is the state of Hawaii, but then one of the islands is also named Hawaii.  Hence why it’s called the Big Island.  It’s also, shockingly enough, the biggest island in the chain.

Kauai is widely regarded as the most beautiful of the islands.  It also has a lot of protected land, and is home to some very large estates that are owned by very rich people, like Mark Zuckerburg.  Kauai will probably be our first visit once we can travel freely among the islands.  

Oahu is the most populated island.  Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii, is on the island of Oahu.  Honolulu is home to about 345,000 people, so it’s a good sized city.  Pearl Harbor is just northwest of Honolulu.

The island of Oahu

Maui is east of Oahu.  Maui is expensive (even by Hawaiian standards) and is a huge tourist destination.  There are several more, smaller, islands just off Maui’s shoreline, including Molokai and Lanai.  

Finally, to the east of Maui, is the Big Island.  It is at least double the size of any of the other islands, so it really is considerably bigger.  There are 2 main towns on the Big Island, Hilo, on the eastern shore, and Kona on the western shore.  The Big Island has lots of open land and is somewhat sparsely populated, but it’s where the active volcanos are, so it will probably be the 2nd island we visit after Kauai.  

We decided to live on Oahu because we felt like it was best to be on the most populated island, and thought we needed to be near Honolulu for work opportunities for me.  When we were searching for a rental, we knew we wanted to be somewhat near Honolulu, but not in town necessarily.  The rental we found is in Ewa Beach (pronounced Ehva), which is located on the other side of Pearl Harbor from Honolulu, on the west, or leeward, side of the island.  In general, the western shore is cheaper and has fewer tourists than the eastern shore.

Our first weekend out of quarantine, we first drove up the middle of the island to the North Shore.  The North Shore is known for tourists and surfing.  And beautiful beaches, but you’ll find those on whatever shore you’re on.  We drove through Haleiwa and kept going northeast up the shoreline to Laniakea Beach.  From our house in Ewa Beach, it took about 45 minutes, so that gives you an idea for the size of the island.

Rigsbee enjoying Laniakea Beach, also known as turtle beach. And there was even a turtle just hanging out on the sand!

We then came back down the middle of the island, went over to the western shore, and drove north along the western shore.  Have I lost you yet?

Our favorite beach of the day was when we drove as far north along the western shore as we could, to Keawaula Beach.  It was absolutely stunning, and we can’t wait to go back and explore more.  Keawaula Beach is the entrance to Ka’ena Point State Park, and we’ve heard there are some really beautiful hikes in the park.  It’s closed now, but that is also on our list to explore.

The next day, we drove south, down through Honolulu, Waikiki, and to the southwestern tip of the island.  We then drove along the shoreline around to the eastern side of the island.  We went up to Kailua, which is about ⅓ of the way up the eastern shore, before we took the highway back across the middle of the island to Honolulu, and then back to Ewa Beach.  

The last piece that we haven’t driven yet is from Kailua up the eastern shore to the North Shore.  We’re hoping to do that in the next few days.

So there you go!  Hopefully I got it all right.  The house we are buying is still in Ewa Beach, but instead of being 3 houses away from the beach, we’ll be about a 12 minute drive.  Chris makes fun of me for saying it’s a 12 minute drive instead of rounding to 10 or 15 minutes, but I think it’s important to note that while it is more than a 10 minute drive, it’s still less than 15 minutes.  

Another view of Laniakea Beach. It was a bit of a dreary day when we were there, but still beautiful.

What other questions do you have for me?  I think I’ve covered all of the questions that I usually get asked.  We’ve been into Honolulu several times, but most areas are still closed down so we haven’t really gotten a feel for yet.  Like everyone else in the world, we can’t wait for the pandemic to be over.  We can tell there’s so much that Hawaii has to offer that we can’t experience yet.