{"id":3141,"date":"2013-08-07T23:08:40","date_gmt":"2013-08-07T13:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/?p=3141"},"modified":"2013-10-07T22:49:07","modified_gmt":"2013-10-07T12:49:07","slug":"hawaii-2012-part-8-swap-meets-and-made-in-hawaii-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/?p=3141","title":{"rendered":"Hawaii 2012 part #8 \u2013 Swap meets and Made in Hawaii festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMAG0272-79\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kam Super Swap meet<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Americans love a good swap meet and Hawaii is no different. Unlike the polarising ones in Brisbane where its either junk that should be left for hard rubbish collection or small businesses peddling their wares (and knock offs), the Kam Super Swap Meet<\/a> has a nice wide variety of items. The gaps between new and junk are padded a lot more liberally with quality used items and crafts and the standard of said items is a lot higher. Bless those hoarders.<\/p>\n

Vintage shoppers and those after a weird relic souvenir will find plenty of treasures here as there are far more average Joes and families selling bits and pieces which can be over looked by locals but valued by us tourists. A prime example is a bicycle licence plate was a mere couple dollars but look for the same thing on ebay and it goes for $15-20 to the international market. Of course with the strong contingent of personal sellers a spot of light haggling easily brings the price down on multiple buys. Remember the flea market mantra, the more they sell, the less they have to carry back home!<\/p>\n

\"IMAG0275-81\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Other items range from antique war memorabilia and household items to retail stores selling Dickies<\/strong> and other clothing. There is also a selection of food stalls, a big trailer with a roast chicken production line and quite possibly the best value shave ice on the island. $3 for a cartoon sized pile of ice means you\u2019ll be sorted for the day\u2026 if only you didn\u2019t have to race against the forces of nature to eat it!<\/p>\n

\"IMAG0273-80\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Getting there<\/strong><\/p>\n

Getting there isn\u2019t too difficult, once you\u2019re within about 3 blocks, the traffic grinds to a halt as drivers are directed to the back of the venue through a winding path of raw uneven ground with bodykit and sump destroying ditches and rocks abound (Id hate to see (or go near) the place if it had been raining the day before). The movement is very slow but steady till a lead driver does the \u201cI\u2019ll wait to see where they\u2019re headed then follow them back to their car\u201d (only to have the person tell them they aren\u2019t leaving or not having a car at all!) The key is to get past the initial dash for parks, this is still a bit of a walk back to the actual market so head back in the direction you came in, this will also give you a jump start on the stream of cars exiting.
\nBut in saying that, I would say finding a park on an adjacent street or shopping area would be an easier and less frustrating way to go about it.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Aloha Stadium Swap meet<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"DSC_1469-168\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the other end of the scale, you have the Aloha Stadium swap meet. If Kam was the Rocklea markets<\/a> then this would be the Southbank markets<\/a>. Gazebo\u2019d\/marquee\u2019d stalls selling pretty much all new mass produced items, plenty of souvenirs and redundancy ad nauseam, not to say there aren\u2019t some unique items. Kawaii printed kitchen wear (aprons, tea towels etc) were our favourite while tradition Hawaiian wear and shirts were put in the \u201cbut when would you actually wear it back home\u201d column. \u201cEverywhere!\u201d I hear some of you exclaim, if this is the case, you\u2019ll have a field day.
\nAnother little gem we came across were Koa wood rings, made or trimmed with local Koa wood, which has actually been recently protected from mass felling.<\/p>\n

\"IMAG0277-83\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMAG0278-84\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The food selection follows the variety and quality of the stalls with anything from fresh fruit and veg and fresh cut coconut milk drinks to home made snacks and sit down pulled pork meals. The stadium\u2019s fixed cafeteria and some of its toilets are also open to the public.<\/p>\n

\"IMAG0280-85\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMAG0282-86\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Travel tip: The markets are held in the circular carpark that surrounds the stadium and fills pretty much all of it so it doesn\u2019t really matter where you park. Parking is available along the one-way ring road adjacent to the markets. Ample addition parking is available back near the entrance if you do a full lap.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Made in Hawaii Festival<\/strong> <\/p>\n

\"IMAG0265-74\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This large annual event held at the Neal S. Blaisdell Exhibition Hall<\/a> is a showcase of local arts and crafts and small businesses.
\nQuite a few of the usual souvenir items from the previous markets were rehashed here, some with their own unique flair but a lot were no different. The craft and art items were however definitely of a higher quality and originality highly likely due to being crafted by small businesses and not mass produced. Likewise goes for the home brewed foods. Shortbreads and potato chips samples were hard to deny, as were the closing time multi buy deals \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

\"IMAG0267-76\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMAG0271-78\"<\/a><\/p>\n

They even had every FM radio’s favourite game, the cash grab!<\/p>\n

\"IMAG0270-77\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Travel tip: The festival goes for 3 days (Fri-Sun) each in around mid August and is open till 9pm (Fri. Sat) and 5pm on Sun. We got there around 8pm and found they had packed up the entry ticket booths so it was a nice price to get in \ud83d\ude09 Entry fee is normally only $4 anyway so its not going to break the bank if you have to pay. Speaking of bank, look for $1 off coupons at First Hawaiian Bank branches.<\/em><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

If you have any questions about our adventures, feel free to hit us up on facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hawaii 2012 part #1 \u2013 Arrival<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #2 \u2013 Waikiki<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #3 \u2013 Honolulu shopping \u2013 Part A<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #4 \u2013 The Big Island \u2013 Volcano tour<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #5 \u2013 Shopping Honolulu \u2013 part B<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #6 \u2013 Tattoo Honolulu \/ Boardshorts: A Perfect Fit art exhibits<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #7 \u2013 Pearl City area<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #8 \u2013 Swap meets and Made in Hawaii festival<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #9 \u2013 Cook offs and Car shows<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #10 \u2013 North shore<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #11 \u2013 Windward shore and Sealife Park<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #12 \u2013 Chief\u2019s Luau at Sealife Park<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #13 \u2013 South shore \u2013 Diamondhead crater, Hanauma bay<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kam Super Swap meet The Americans love a good swap meet and Hawaii is no different. Unlike the polarising ones in Brisbane where its either junk that should be left for hard rubbish collection or small businesses peddling their wares (and knock offs), the Kam Super Swap Meet has a nice wide variety of items. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1883,388],"tags":[1507,2045,2046,953,1886,487,2043,2047,828,2048,100,2044,488,391,595],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3141"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3538,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141\/revisions\/3538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}