The people Hawaii generally favor a traditional method of telling direction over the north, south, east, west method prevalent in much of the rest of the world.
When I was getting ready to move to Hawaii, I eagerly read through all the Hawaii and Oahu guides I could find. One thing that struck me early on was the unique way of giving directions.
The island of Oahu (where Honolulu and Pearl Harbor are), is roughly quadrilateral, and each side has a name. The south side is Ewa, the west side is leeward, the east side is windward, and the north, well that's the famous north shore (best surfing on the planet). On top of that, the mountains in the middle are called mauna (meaning mountain) and the ocean is mauka. So, if you want to give a direction to something that is closer to the mountains you would say it's mauna. If it is on west coast, you would say leeward.
This week's article is on geomagnetic reversal, and if that happens, the Hawaii way of giving directions would still be valid!
