Hia Wood Carving

My husband and I purchased a gorgeous rainbow wood whale tail in January 2014 from this man. We paid $ 175 cash since no credit cards accepted — our first mistake. He promised to ship it to us the next day. It was very heavy and we were leaving the next day. A week later my husband called 4 times and could not get hold of him, his cell phone would not take messages. After several days, we finally reached him and he said he would ship the next day. This went on for several weeks. We finally got a whale tail, but it was not the one we purchased, it was smaller and one edge was chipped. I called him, same routine, it took several days to get hold of him. I told him I was sending it back since it was not the one we purchased. He said his cousin had dropped the one we purchased so he sent this one. I told him I wanted one like the one we purchased. He assured me that he would make another. I paid $ 55 USD to send the incorrect whale tail back to him and received a confirm that he received it. Now, 2 years later, and many phone calls unanswered, we still have never received our whale tale.
If you purchase from this individual, be sure to take it with you!

In 2013 I purchased a whale tail made of rainbow wood and a tiki from Hia. He said that he was able to FedEx anything we purchased. I paid $ 200 cash (no credit cards accepted), my husband took a picture of Hia and I with our purchases because he doesn’t offer receipts either. He kept assuring us he was honest which should probably have been my first clue. Needless to say, our products were never mailed to us. I repeatedly called and texted to no avail. Recently, friends went to Maui and offered to stop at his shop. After two days of run around by Hia, they did recover the whale tail but it is not made of the rainbow wood we paid for. My recommendation is steer clear of this thief unless you are taking your purchase with you because he certainly will not mail anything to you.

Hia was great. He has some really beautiful pieces in his shop and you can tell within a minute of talking with him how passionate he is about what he does. He is on the south end of Front Street by the school so it is a little difficult to find but well worth it. I cant wait for my piece to arrive.

Spent the day shopping on Front Street, watched him carve and he explainied the meanings of the different carvings. What talent. My friend took her hubby by before dinner to show how amazing the carvings were. They grabbed a big tiki for a friend, even personalized the bottom for them. They ended up going back after dinner to get one for themselves. Reasonable prices and they are all beautiful. Don’t buy a tiki at a store… find this guy.

Really pretty wood carving. Great attention to detail. Honestly some of the prettiest wood work I’ve seen yet.