Emerald525 Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Sorry I'm gonna miss this John! You will be missed around here. You were a great addition to this forum and I hope you keep posting. Not only did you treat your animals like the pets they are. You went one step above and treated them like members of the family. I have no doubt Betty will remember you and be excited to see you if you come back this way to visit her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted September 29, 2014 Author Share Posted September 29, 2014 Pamela has been full-time busy for the past couple of months doing the impossible--securing a rental house for us near Kona (where I'll inevitably be working). Today, I'm happy to say that we signed the papers on a rental house! At this point, everything is going perfectly. Having a place to land is a huge load off of our shoulders as our date for arrival in Hawaii is rapidly approaching. This house ticks all of the boxes for us, with maybe the exception of space, so anybody visiting us will need to sleep in the garage or in a tent. That said, we will have an amazing ocean view. Time to invest in a telescope for the upcoming whale migration! Here's a pic of the house we'll be renting: Once we get settled in, we'll be looking for a house to buy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted September 29, 2014 Author Share Posted September 29, 2014 Since I sold my ATO along with Betty's tank, here's a new one to replace it with. It'll be a while before I get to use it, but I figured it would be best to get it stateside and put it in with our household goods that are being shipped in two weeks. I also got 25 lbs of dry Fiji rock from BRS that will be coming along for the ride. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted October 7, 2014 Author Share Posted October 7, 2014 Well, the house is going to be packed up by the movers on Thursday/Friday. I've already packed up most of my aquarium equipment. Our shipping container arrives tomorrow. They load the container early next week after my tool box comes home from work on a flatbed tow truck (It's a very large tool box). At that point, I'm not working until we arrive in Hawaii and my tool box is unloaded. We'll also be camping out in our house with nothing more than an air mattress, a couple of sleeping bags and a few suitcases of stuff to get us by until we make our exit from the mainland in early November. It's both exciting and a little terrifying. On a very positive note, I just got my first job offer yesterday. It's not as much money as I had hoped, but it's a pretty solid offer and certainly a living wage. I'm expecting to get additional job offers in the coming weeks, so we'll see how those pan out. Here is all of my equipment. Sitting in boxes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bombertech Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 Good luck with the move John, it has to be very exciting/terrifying for you! I look forward to keeping up with your re-locate and tank-rebuild. Some of us can only dream of such a life change. With a little hoping, dreaming, and determination maybe I'll see you in Kona Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 Exciting times John! The Big Island is my favorite of the islands! Perhaps you can have a side job and sell zoas to us back here on the mainland! Cheers to the 2 of you for having a dream and having the courage and determination to make it happen! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted October 11, 2014 Author Share Posted October 11, 2014 Wow, this is really happening... As we're looking at all of these boxes, we're wondering how we accumulated so much crap! And we donated, sold and threw away quite a bit of it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pledosophy Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 We had the same thought last month when we moved. Then when we only kept what we couldn't live without, we three away a quarter of that at the new place. Good luck on the adventure Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted October 12, 2014 Author Share Posted October 12, 2014 The quality of the packing is good. I doubt much will get broken, but... Ugh... "Honey, which box is the miscellaneous in?" "All of them..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted October 24, 2014 Author Share Posted October 24, 2014 Well, I've been so busy that I haven't had much time to update everyone on the adventure! So, here's all the news that's fit to print: Almost all of our stuff is gone (Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean) and we're spending our time picking through the remaining items to figure out what we want to mail to Hawaii, what we want to sell on Craigslist and what we're going to donate. Here's what we're calling a bed right now. Like the nightstand? We're down to these few items that we're trying to sell on Craigslist. We managed to squeeze two of the nicest green chairs onto the container, but two didn't make it. Are they not amazing? Here's my rendition of an airline approved parrot cage. Since they don't actually sell an airline approved parrot cage, I had to make a couple. These were once airline approved cat carriers, they've been metal reinforced to prevent the parrots from biting through the plastic window slats. Perches, water and food dishes have been added as well as an extra layer or door protection to prevent them from biting through what will come last--just before they are delivered to the airline. Mosquito netting. Hawaii is horribly afraid that they will get West Nile virus, and thus, the parrots must be quarantined at the veterinary office in a mosquito proof room 7 days prior to our leaving. Then the vet will certify them disease free and we will seal them in their cages with a layer (or two) of mosquito netting taped to the outside of the carriers so they don't magically contract West Nile virus between the veterinary office and the airplane. In November, in Oregon. If they arrive in Hawaii and the mosquito netting is compromised at all, they will be shipped back to the mainland on the very next flight. That's about it, a few things left to go and less than two weeks to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Higher Thinking Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 That's a crazy parrot shipping procedure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssappington Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 What kind of birds you got? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted October 24, 2014 Author Share Posted October 24, 2014 What kind of birds you got? Two African grays. One is a Timneh and the other is a Congo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssappington Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 Nice! Who is your vet? I have 2 cockatoos... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted October 30, 2014 Author Share Posted October 30, 2014 Yesterday we got a call from the container shipping company to tell us that our container arrived at Kawaihae harbor in Hawaii a week early! Wow! That's great for a couple reasons... One, the ship didn't sink and our stuff make it there safely. Two, we've been able to schedule the container to be delivered to our rental house the day after we arrive and the movers will come unload it the next day. Woohoo! Our cars should be there this week and ready to pick up when we land. We fly out next Tuesday! Stay tuned for updates! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pledosophy Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 that is good news. Great step in the adventures. So... when is the last night at Moloko's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted October 31, 2014 Author Share Posted October 31, 2014 that is good news. Great step in the adventures. So... when is the last night at Moloko's? This is really last-minute, but time is slipping away from us really fast now... I'll be at The Hobnob Bar and Grill on Saturday the 1st from 6pm to 9pm if anybody wants to see me one last time. The Hobnob is at 34th and SE Morrison St. Hope to see a few of you there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted November 1, 2014 Author Share Posted November 1, 2014 Days before we're leaving, Pamela and I were discussing possibly purchasing and shipping a third car to Hawaii to avoid the exceptionally high price of vehicles on the islands. We were thinking either a Jeep Wrangler to help us get to some of the more remote beaches, but decided for all the times that we actually want to do that, we'll just rent a Jeep. Our other thought was a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck, or going a completely different angle, a Mini convertible. In what can only be described as a crazy random happenstance, Pamela was giving her friend a ride to pick up her car that was being serviced at Pacific Motorsports where fellow automotive technician and well known local saltwater enthusiast James (TobyFlenderson) happens to work. Well, what do you know, they had a customer's Mini on their lot that was for sale. Amazingly enough, it ticked ALL of the boxes for what we wanted in a fun Hawaii car, and this time of year in Portland, we were able to score a smokin' deal on it, so it ended up going home with us. This is going to be way too much fun in Hawaii. The top is never going to go up! For those interested, it's a 2007 Cooper S. 38k miles. 6 Speed manual transmission and all of the bells and whistles you'd want an none of the ones that you don't want. Oh boy does it drive nice. It reminds me a lot of my old 1962 Mini I had in high school and college. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted November 11, 2014 Author Share Posted November 11, 2014 Aloha friends! I feel like I'm way overdue for an update, so here goes. The past week has been a mixture of excitement, craziness, exhaustion and fun. We started out on the 4th of November at Oh-dark-thirty in the morning preparing our African grey parrots for transport to the islands. We picked them up from the veterinarian office the day before where they went through a week long quarantine process. I had already built parrot-proof airline approved cat carriers. The wee hours of the morning before the flight we were scrambling to mosquito-proof the carriers with window screen and duct tape before we took them to Alaska airlines cargo at 4:30am. They were left in the hands of the cargo folks and we headed to the main airport to check a half-dozen bags of parrot supplies, sleeping bags, clothing and other necessities for our first few days in Hawaii. Here is a photo from the middle of the Honolulu airport-- Yes, this is in the airport. When we got to Honolulu, we had to collect the birds from the agriculture department. This was a difficult place to find. It involved walking down what were clearly areas where people were not supposed to go. Construction zones, dotted the walk to the agriculture department office. Fortunately, all of our paperwork was in order and the birds were released to us after a half-hour wait. We were able to remove the mosquito netting and then we had a 4 hour wait for our flight to Kona. Ahnie and Dory were absolutely enthralled with the whole adventure. We were extremely worried about Dory as she is a chronic feather plucker; we expected her to be plucked naked by the time we arrived in Hawaii. When we arrived in Honolulu, she hadn't plucked any feathers at all. She really seemed to be having a good time! We tried to arrange an earlier flight to Kona as we had a 4 hour layover, and that's when the drama started. The Hawaiian Airlines people suddenly told us we could not take parrots on Hawaii airlines! Of course, we had arranged all of this months ago and had reservations. Managers got involved, and after about 20 minutes of hassle, they finally conceded that you could indeed take Parrots in cargo to Kona, but not Hilo (the East coast airport 3 hours from Kona). Sadly, all of the earlier flights were booked solid, so we had to wait... and wait... and wait. There wasn't much to do in the airport. Not much in the way of people watching. Pamela bought a yogurt parfait to share some of the yogurt with Ahnie and Dory as a treat for doing to well on the trip. Dory's carrier had clearly been knocked over at some point during the flight and her food and water were all over the floor of the carrier. She didn't seem to mind too much and ate some of the soggy seed and pellets. While she was feeding the birds, a dove flew into the airport and became extremely curious about the parrots. Then, when Pamela started feeding the parrots, the dove had to come over for a closer look... Then, a tour group from Japan showed up and EVERY single person's bag was overweight, and they proceeded to shuffle their belongings from one bag to another to avoid baggage fees. Some people started layering clothing to help reduce the last few pounds from their bags. Fortunately, nobody had to resort to wearing their underwear on the outside. A couple hours later, we got the birds through the special TSA screening and boarded the short flight to Kona. Here are the birds loading onto the airplane. We arrived after dark. I waited in front of the airport as Pamela got the rental car. Here are the birds and our silly amount of luggage as we waited: We got to the rental house and set up the birds' temporary cages and slept in sleeping bags on the hardwood floor. Ouch! The next morning, we were greeted at 6:30am by this view: Then I got a chance to look around outside: The next day, we drove up to Kawaehae and collected our cars from the port. We left my car in Kawaehae and drove the rental car and Pamela's car back to Kona. Later that evening, we went back to get my car after turning in the rental car... And I'm getting too tired to share any more, but there's much more to come! This has been a whirlwind of a week! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted November 11, 2014 Author Share Posted November 11, 2014 By the way, tide pool pictures to come when I have time, and much more story! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smann Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 What area are you staying in, we're in the KiloHana neighborhood just off the highway by the Chevron station when we are there. We'll be there for thanksgiving if you want to meet and talk about things to do in Kona, Kona brew should make you feel at home! Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted November 12, 2014 Author Share Posted November 12, 2014 What area are you staying in, we're in the KiloHana neighborhood just off the highway by the Chevron station when we are there. We'll be there for thanksgiving if you want to meet and talk about things to do in Kona, Kona brew should make you feel at home! Steve We're up above the Costco near Mamalahoa Highway near Hina Lani St. I'd love to meet up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted November 12, 2014 Author Share Posted November 12, 2014 Here's a little Hawaii tide pool action for you all. More story to come when I have time. It's been crazy busy, but all fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted December 26, 2014 Author Share Posted December 26, 2014 By the way guys, Mele Kalikimaka! And... I've been doing a terrible job of updating my thread on the various forums, but I did just update the one on Nano-Reef, so if you want to see what's new with me, check it out! http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/351093-islandoftikis-hawaiian-adventure/ I miss you all very much. It's challenging not having anyone to talk tanks with here, but I finally met a local saltwater enthusiast who has several nano tanks that look awesome. And yes, you can get illegal corals here and no, I won't tell you this guy's name or share pictures of his tanks, but suffice it to say, they are pretty stunning. I'm going to keep my tanks legal when I set them up so I can share them with the world. Some of the local zoas and palys are truly amazing as you all know (and they're legal to collect). I still need to figure out the legality of mantis shrimp. I'm pretty sure you can harvest them to eat, so I think you could keep one as a pet. Cheers! John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pledosophy Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 Aloha! I've been following on Nano reef. Sounds like your doing well. Good luck with the move. Merry Christmas to you and the fiancé Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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