Kula, on the Big Island or ?????

[97fxdwg]

Wow - all that time I spent in Waikiki and I didn't realize I was in paradise!
For the people who live in Kula and other parts of upcountry Maui, they wouldn't live anywhere else. You need to spend a little time there and see how you fit in.
Christchurch is an awesome city - I managed to get there twice and loved it both times. The diving is way better on North Island though, but the southern part of South Island is staggering beautiful.
Right now though, I'm kinda leaning towards Bequia in the Grenadines as the next haven. This will probably open up a flood of hate mail since Bequia is currently to harvest an annual quota of four whales per year through the IWC, but hey - it's their island. There are some pretty amazing parts of the Bahamas but they're more expensive than southern Floriduh now.
Alaska Airlines flies into Miami now which opens up some possibilities.

Tom - Some great ideas! Hey, the natives here are fixing to harpoon whales in another couple of months but as you say, its their neck-of-the-woods.
I also thought that the South Island of NZ was off the scale gorgeous but didn't do any diving on either island. The search will continue. Thanks

 

[Wildcard]

I have lived on Maui, Oahu and the Big Isle. My favorite hands down was the Big Isle. Maui is nice, very pretty ( I lived in makawao too) but it get very toursty at times. I have no great fondness for Oahu other than the GF stationed here for now.
Myself, Im pretty fond of Alaska for living.
One bonus of the islands is Hawaiian vacations has a direct flight to Anchorage and Fbanks, if you didn't know about that already and have some smoking deals at times.

 

[justleesa]

Wow - all that time I spent in Waikiki and I didn't realize I was in paradise!

Paradise is what you make of it Tom...To everyone it is different.