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Leave your compass at home — islanders have a different sense of direction than mainlanders do. Although locals do think of the islands as having north shores and south shores, west coasts and east coasts, seldom will anybody direct you by using the most common directional terms.
Instead, they'll send you either makai (ma-kai), a directional meaning toward the sea, or mauka (mow-kah), meaning toward the mountains. Because each island is basically a volcano with a single coastal road circling it, those two terms are often enough to do the trick.
When they don't suffice, locals are likely to invoke relative terms rather than "north," "south," "east," or "west." If you're standing in Kapaa on Kauai's east shore, for example, locals tell you to head toward Lihue if they want you to go south. In Honolulu, people use Diamond Head when they mean to the east (in the direction of the world-famous crater called Diamond Head), and Ewa (ee-va) when they mean to the west (in the direction of the town called Ewa, beyond Pearl Harbor).
So if you ask an islander for directions on Oahu, you're likely to hear something like this: "Turn left and go 2 miles Diamond Head [east], turn at the light and go 2 blocks makai [toward the sea], and then turn at the stop light. Go 2 more blocks and turn Ewa [west]; the address you want is on the mauka [mountain] side of the street."
If you're on the Big Island at a luxury Kohala Coast resort and you're heading out to catch a snorkel cruise, for example, you're more likely to hear something like this: "Go 8 miles past Kailua-Kona [south] to mile marker 109. Turn makai [toward the ocean] on King Kam Road and then left at the bottom of the hill."
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