Mar 08

Wow, we arrived in L.A last night and drove for an hour out to Anaheim. This place is amazing - Disneyland rules out here and everything just feels so ‘Disney’. Jo was singing like a typical Disney movie “la la la la la” in the shuttle bus when we started to drive through Disneyland.

Last couple of days we were in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii with Uncle Brian and Kazemaru. Our objective there was to find a suitable property for their future home to settle down together and for them to be able to run retreats from this home. Well Praise God – we found the right place just in the nick of time. It is a great property of 12.3 acres with views of the ocean, its own private stream and a working rambutan orchard. The house was very well looked after with 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms upstair and a whole area downstairs that can be converted into another 2 bedroom apartment. Whilst Brian and Kazemaru aren’t there they can rent it out which will cover most of their holding costs. So all in all a great investment! We managed to sign on the 11th hour with us getting contracts to the seller for him to sign, with all the terms & price that we wanted. I must say it was one of the smoothest real estate transactions that I have ever been involved in.

It was great catching up with Uncle Brian and meeting his fiancé Kazemaru. They are both lovely together and we are looking forward to spending more time with them in the future. Well now they have this place on the Big Island – Im sure Jo and I will be saving our pennies every year to see how we can get back.

The Big Island is not a place for the typical tourist, it is very chill and relax and a place to just ‘be’. The natural beauty there was astounding. When I had a swim near Hilo bay, a turtle came swimming beside me and he let me stratch his shell and we were just hanging in the water for about 5 min – before some Japanese tourist came splashing out – then he was off in a flash.

Here in LA, we are going to get out an explore the city and obviously run around like little kids at Disneyland and Universal Studios.

We will keep you posted.

To view heaps of pics of our trip go to jo's myspace www.myspace.com/mee_too_you (click 'pics' just underneath the photo of Jo)

Aloha from the Big Island!

We have been tucked away on the big island of Hawaii since Wednesday afternoon and been busy searching for properties for Uncle Brian and Kazemaru. We have managed to reduce the prospect list from 20 properties down to 3.

Its funny that we have found that even the real estate agents here work the same and act the same as real estate agents do back home! Also the planning and development process works the same way here as it does back home.

The big island reminds me of Tully and Mission Beach back in Australia – very tropical. This island is kinda shaped like a massive cone (due to the active volcano) so nearly every property no matter how far you go up the mountain have views to the ocean. Its really cool here as you can see all the seasons, from wintery snow to hot humid heat all in the same day.

Yesterday (Friday) was a truly magic day with the sky clearing and we were able to see the snow capped volcano in the distance. There are no sandy beaches here (well nearly none) the beaches come down from massive tall cliffs. So most of the beaches are all jagged edge rocks or large smooth black stones.

On Thursday we went and swam in the green lake, which is a lake (about 2 acre in size) in an extinct volcano. They say that this lake doesn’t have a bottom and a diver explorer came and dove down 100 ft and there was still no sign of reaching the bottom. Freaky huh! Swimming in this green coloured lake was like something out of the movie Anaconda!!! After this swim we went down to the beach and dipped in a hot spring rock pool which is half tidal and half freshwater. Swimming in the rock pond felt so refreshing and invigorating as all the minerals were absorbing into our skin. I felt so awake after that swim!

We have seen some beautiful properties here, many had their own waterfalls. The soil here is so rich that the locals say when you plant a tree you need to have a machete in the other hand so you can start hacking the tree down.

Today Uncle Brian arrives and we need to go into Hilo to pick him up as well as grab some more food. They have farmers markets here every Wednesday and Saturday and they are just like our Carrara markets. A lot of the ‘feel’ here is similar to Byron Bay with everyone into organics and vegan lifestyles. The fresh food here is really amazing, with massive mangoes, avocados, paw paw, bananas – the list could go on!

Mahalo