Hanapepe -- This West Kauai hamlet is becoming a haven for artists, but finding them requires some vigilance. The center of town is off Highway 50; turn right on Hanapepe Road just after Eleele if you're driving from Lihue. First, you'll smell the chips at the sumptuous lavender Taro Ko Chips Factory, located in an old green plantation house at 3940 Hanapepe Rd. Cooked in a tiny, modest kitchen at the east end of town, these famous taro chips are handmade by the farmers who grow the taro in a nearby valley. Despite their breakable nature, these chips make great gifts to go. To really impress them back home, get the authentic Hawaiian li hing mui?flavored chips.
Our very favorite Hanapepe store is the Banana Patch Studio, 3865 Hanapepe Rd. (tel. 808/335-5944; www.bananapatchstudio.com). For the best prices on the island for tropical plates and cups, hand-painted tiles, artwork, handmade soaps, pillows with tropical designs, and jewelry, this is the place. Plus, they will pack and ship for you anywhere. Farther along, Hanapepe Road is lined with gift shops and galleries, including Koa Wood Gallery, with its koa furniture, koa photo albums, and Norfolk pine bowls; and the corny but cherubic Aloha Angels, where everything is angel-themed or angel-related. The Kauai Village Gallery offers abstract and surreal paintings by Kauai artist Lew Shortridge, while nearby Kauai Fine Arts offers an odd mix that works: antique maps and prints of Hawaii, authentic Polynesian tapa (bark cloth), rare wiliwili seed leis, old Matson liner menus, and a few pieces of contemporary island art. Down the street, the Kim Starr Gallery, showing only Kim Starr's oil paintings, pastels, drawings, and limited-edition graphics, is a strong positive note in Hanapepe's art community. Taking a cue from Maui's Lahaina, where every Friday night is Art Night, Hanapepe's gallery owners and artists recently instituted the Friday Night Art Walk from 6 to 9pm. Gallery owners take turns hosting this informal event along Hanapepe Road.
Waimea -- Neighboring Waimea is filled with more edibles than art. Kauai's favorite native supermarket, Big Save, serves as the one-stop shop for area residents and passersby heading for the uplands of Kokee State Park, some 4,000 feet above this sea-level village. For more hard-to-find delicious gourmet items, try the Ishihara Store, where they have marinated meals, freshly made poke, and a range of prepared picnic items. A cheerful distraction for lovers of Hawaiian collectibles is Collectibles and Fine Junque, on Highway 50, next to the fire station on the way to Waimea Canyon. This is where you'll discover what it's like to be the proverbial bull in a china shop. (Even a knapsack makes it hard to get through the aisles.) Heaps of vintage linens, choice aloha shirts and muumuus, rare glassware (and junque, too), books, ceramics, authentic 1950s cotton chenille bedspreads, and a back room full of bargain-priced secondhand goodies always capture our attention. You never know what you'll find in this tiny corner of Waimea.
Be sure to stop in Aunty Lilikoi Passion Fruit Products, 9633 Kaumualii Hwy. in Waimea (tel. 866-LILIKOI or 808/338-1296; www.auntylilikoi.com), where they have wonderful products -- from jelly to mustard to butter to soap -- all made from lilikoi. They will even ship your purchase home for you.
Up in Kokee State Park, the gift shop of the Kokee Natural History Museum (tel. 808/335-9975) is the stop for botanical, geographical, historical, and nature-related books and gifts, not only on Kauai, but on all the islands. Audubon bird books, hiking maps, and practically every book on Kauai ever written line the shelves.
