Settling into life in Molokai

Well hello again! It’s been absolutely ages since the last blog post, but now that we’re so far away from friends and family, I will definitely be updating regularly, keeping you up to date on what’s going on in our life. I’d also love to hear from you, either with a comment at the end of a post (anyone can leave a comment! If you don’t have a google account, just choose the anonymous option and make sure you sign your name at the end of your comment!) or via email. I miss you all! Communication with loved ones takes on a whole new meaning and importance when we’re far away from you all!


We arrived on Molokai one week ago and are slowly getting settled into a somewhat different lifestyle than we’re used to! We arrived with 14 (yes, 14!!!) pieces of luggage…. 9 suitcases, 3 rubbermaids and 2 large bike boxes. We are caretaking a house and property for a very generous man named Virgil, who lives most of the time in Alaska. John met him in Melbourne last year where they were both doing a Permaculture Design course. One thing led to another and now we’re here for the winter…or possibly longer….depending on how it all goes!

One of our patios with the view of the ocean in the background.

Sunset from the patio.

We’ve spent our first days unpacking, deep cleaning the house, hanging out at the beach and checking out this end of the island. We‘re living on the very dry, windy west side of the island! We have found some lovely beaches, some safe for swimming and some just plain gorgeous but with huge waves and strong rips.

The little village closest to us is called Maunaloa – about a 20 minute drive – with a small “grocery” store, a post office, a cool kite shop and a rec. center. (I’m going to check out a Zumba class at the rec center this evening!) For real grocery shopping we need to go into the main town called Kaunakakai (pronounced Caw-na-ka-kye) which is about a 30 minute drive. The town consists of a couple of streets with a handful of stores, a nice little natural food store, a great little library (we got a card the first day here and have already been enjoying our library books!), a community center, a school and a gas station. I have not been buying enough food when we’ve been in town to last us until the next shop! I realize I have to stock up… buy 3 pineapples instead of 1! I’ll have to get more organized, perhaps create a week’s menu before shopping each week!

One of the treasures on this island is Kumu farms – a beautiful organic farm with a farmstand and lovely produce. They are open 4 days a week, so again… I’ll have to plan my days in town accordingly!

We’ve been enjoying delicious papayas off the trees around the house. Sweet, tree ripened papayas with a squeeze of lime (off the neighbor’s tree!)…. Yum! The neighbors have also gifted us with bananas of f their tree and fresh eggs from their chickens. Lucky us!

Yesterday we went on a bit of an adventure. We took a crazy 4x4 road to a gorgeous white sand beach where we spent a good part of the day swimming, snorkeling, and collecting beautiful shells. The kids loved playing in the clear water, had fun in the gentle surf and enjoyed playing in the sand.

 John drove the truck, Bella rode shotgun and Zara, Thor and I bounced around in the back! The beach was truly gorgeous, but not sure we’ll be doing that drive again anytime soon!!

Some of the shells Zara and John collected while snorkeling at the beach!

Our nightly entertainment has been watching the big screen….. the sky that is! Most nights we sit out after dinner (it’s pitch black by 7pm), snuggle up with blankets and just watch the stars. With so little light around here, the number of stars visible is mind blowing! We watch planes come and go from Honolulu (we can see the city lights way off in the distance from our patio), we oooh and aaww over shooting stars and listen to the night song. A few nights ago we saw the most incredible shooting star drop straight down out of the sky with a massive, bright tail…. we were all afraid it was going to land right in front of us! I have no idea what is was….a meteor? a comet? Perhaps a once in a lifetime sighting!

We checked out a neat group yesterday for Zara called Youth in Motion. They meet twice a week for stand up paddle boarding, kayaking and other watersports. Zara paddled for hours yesterday and really enjoyed it! Next time we go I’ll wear my bathing suit and paddle too!

I have been surprised at what a transition it’s been to move here. I’ve had a hard time reconciling the difference between the reality of being here vs. what I thought it would be like… my expectations. It’s not like we’ve moved to China…. I mean we’re still in the USA! But it feels so different… I have to admit there were a few pity parties going on during those first few days! More than just a few times I thought “What the heck was I thinking?!?!!?” BUT…as the days go by it feels easier. I’m trying to live in the moment and just BE here, with my family and embrace the adventure with all its ups and downs. As you can see from the pictures, we're seeking out the beauty and enjoying what this island has offer. Aloha from all of us!