Haleiwa Shopping

One of the most beautiful shops along the highway in Haleiwa was the Wyland Gallery.

Wyland focuses alot of energy into the Fauna of the local area. Alot of his pictures are enriched with whales, dolphins and tropical fish.

Although very intriqued, I did not purchase any pieces while here.

What to buy: Art, posters, sculptures.

What to pay: $12 to $12000, depending on your taste.

One of the things I noticed about Waikiki was how expensive clothing there was... a friend of mine mentioned that you should wait until hitting the North Shore to really pick up a couple deals! So I followed the advice, and much to my surprise... he was right!

North Shore Surf Company has all the t-shirts you would find down in Waikiki, at a fraction of the price! Two shirts for me were $10... a good deal in my opinion!

I guess it was special because we all got something from this surfshop.

For me a long sleeve T as we're in winter back in Sydney.

But for all the females in my family it wa soemthing summery. For Kerry, a short sleeved t for next summer.

For Keely a lovely pair of Roxy shorts for next summer.

And for Bess (Alexandra) a groovy pair of violet floral boardies for next summer.

And the best part was that it was all cheaper than we can get it home in Australia.

What to buy: Anything you want in surf hardware or clothing.

They stock mainly Quicksilver and Roxy clothing.

And they stock a good range of surfboards from top North Shore shapers. Shame I wasn't in the market for a new board.

What to pay: Reasonable prices for surfgear. As i previously stated, for us, it was cheaper than back in Australia where I believe we pay outrageous prices for name brand surfwear.

What stood out about this shop was the excellent range of handicrafts that made for good souvenir shopping. My only criticism would be that I, as a visitor to Hawaii, was only interested in Hawaiian items, not those from Samoa or other Pacific Islands> Having said that it is a very minor criticism as everything was clearly marked with its place of origin.

The other thing that stood out was the very friendly service of a genuine nature. Makes such a difference when you feel like you are dealing with real people & not just someone who want s to sell you something.

What to buy: Well for me I received two father's day presents from this store from my twin 5 year old girls.

One bought me a beautiful ceramic vase that she chose all by herself. The other one bought me a beautiful photo frame in which to put my favourite photo of our trip to Hawaii.

So you can see I was well looked after.

What I would have liked to have got except for my worry about too much weight in the luggage, was one of the wooden masks. Again there was an excellent range of sizes in a number of different styles

What to pay: From a little for the small items to a fair bit, but nothing outrageous.

The Haleiwa shop looks smaller from the front than what it is when you get inside.

What makes it so special is the beautiful artwork and bronzework.

The bronzework looks like it is ceramic/pottery type work, but it is actually bronze with a patina to give that effect. Very well done & some stunning pieces be they manta rays, turtles, whales, dolphins or whatever. All excellent & all with quite hefty price tags befitting the quality.

My favourite artist in this store was Jim Warren. One painting of his particularly stood out to me. It was a breaking wave and from the foam & already broken part of the wave began the emergence of horses until the unbroken face of the wave, a beautiful blue/green wall had finished white horses coming out of it. Again a price out of this Aussie tourist's reach as much as I did love it.

What to buy: Think I've pretty well described the possibilities above.

If you can afford it you cn definitely find something to suit your tastes which would make an excellent memento of your stay in Hawaii on Oahu.

This store is one of many apparently and not just in Hawaii it would seem.

What to pay: Quite a bit!