Post #9195 by Tiki-bot on Wed, Sep 25, 2002 11:51 AM

Gretchen and I just got back from a week in Kauai and we were happy to see that there ARE some tikis alive and well there. I'll be putting up a full page of photos and info soon, but here's there short of it.

There were respectable tikis at both the Marriott and Hyatt resorts. Plus, the Hyatt wins for best Mai Tai on the isle. Downside is it's in a plastic cup. Second best, but very close, were Mai Tais at Zelo's in Hanalei. They were in proper hurricane glasses and hands-down won the "presentation award". Now, I appreciate a good dive bar more than most, but the Tahiti Nui is just sad. Basically a beer joint with sports on 2 tvs. Cool interior wall treatments and 4 or 5 great tiki barstools couldn't make up for the squalid feel of the place. I couldn't even bring myself to order a cocktail since the bartender seemed frazzled just getting the occasional bottled beer for one of the 5 other (drunken) customers there.

The tiki highlight was that right next door to our resort was the house of a wonderful old gentleman who happened to be an amazing tiki carver. He had a couple of beautiful pieces there in his yard and we chatted him up about his work. He's a retired building contractor and doesn't sell through stores or galleries. He just does them for fun (and profit). I liked his way of working: Don't send money, just a picture of the kind of tiki you like and he'll just do it. He didn't have email or business cards, he just scrawled his name and address on a piece of paper for me. There will be pics of his work on the page I'll put up.

Needless to say, we had an awesome time. We went in the ocean every day and there was NO surf all week, so we snorkled a lot. Highlight was at Ke'e when a sea turtle stared me right in the face from about 2 feet away as I just hovered there motionless, then swam slowly right underneath me! It was very exciting.

Oh, and the best place to do all your tiki shopping: Walmart! They have a whole tiki section, cheap mugs and everything. Sure it's not "collectable", but we seemed to have collected an awful lot from there anyway!