Repeated visits to Oahu have turned the Hawaiian island into a place of personal memory for travel writer Laura Agnew, who says its appeal lies as much in returning to familiar places as in discovering something new.
She has visited three times, with each trip offering a different way into the island’s contrasting character: the rugged landscape of the North Shore, the busy glamour of Waikiki and the nostalgic attractions that have drawn her back over the years.
The journey begins less romantically than the films suggest. After about 10 hours in sub-zero conditions aboard an older aircraft, Agnew describes stepping on to the tarmac at Honolulu International Airport to find intense heat and humidity waiting for her.
Yet the discomfort quickly gives way to the pleasures of Oahu, helped by a first taste of shaved ice. On her latest visit, she and her husband drove away from the airport in an upgraded Mercedes-Benz, listening to 1960s surf rock on local radio with the windows down after failing to work out the car’s air-conditioning or sound system.
They headed for Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore, where a few nights were spent settling into the pace of the island. A bird-watching trip introduced them to Hawaiian legends and the threatened ruddy turnstone, which their enthusiastic guide announced whenever one came into view.
A walk to the nearby Kuilima Farm Stand for fried bananas became a daily ritual. At the resort’s private beach, the couple swam with sea turtles, while other highlights included kalua pork cooked in an underground oven, a hike along the Kahuku Coastline Trail and a sunset wedding watched from their ocean-view balcony.
For Agnew, the North Shore provides the postcard image of Oahu, but the island is best understood by combining it with the more crowded energy of Waikiki. The two settings offer sharply different experiences, from surf beaches and open coastline to the busy streets around Kalakaua Avenue.
Waikiki’s popularity is most obvious on its main thoroughfare, where hotel towers stand beside golden sand and gentle waves used by novice surfers. Agnew compares its atmosphere with the Gold Coast and says the crowds associated with conferences, student competitions and family reunions can be difficult for some visitors.
As a returning visitor, she prefers the area’s backstreets. A drink beneath the banyan tree at the Moana Surfrider may provide a classic holiday photograph, she writes, but an evening at Cuckoo Coconuts, with a Blue Hawaiian in a plastic cup and a band playing Steely Dan, offers a more personal version of Waikiki.
Each visit has also become linked to a different stage of her life. She recalls meeting surfing legend Kelly Slater in the lobby of Turtle Bay when she was 20, persuading a boyfriend to spend their final night in 2004 eating at Chili’s, and travelling while pregnant with her first child.
On a future trip, she plans to bring her two children to The Cheesecake Factory and order the same Chinese Chicken Salad she has chosen before. The meal, and the memories attached to it, have become a time capsule of earlier journeys.
Agnew says Oahu’s lasting attraction is not simply the prospect of seeing somewhere new. For her, the island’s magic comes from returning to a place that feels familiar, and from finding that old experiences remain part of every new visit.
