7:45
I awake to two mynah birds conversing in a Norfolk Island pine just beyond the lanai that skirts my lodge style room. Then I inhale the salt air mixed with plumeria and the earthy sweet tones of pineapple. Here, at the lodge, I can retreat into its wooded uplands but, at the same time, I can be at the beach within 20 minutes. Lanai's not entirely a private island, but roughly 90 percent is privately owned.

10 am
My belly filled with French toast and locally-grown coffee, I hop on one of the resort's bicycles (equipped with a lunch basket prepare by the hotel's chef) and pedal past a couple heading to the horse stables, while another sets out for a guided hike. Every venue and activity, I've learned, is either part of or arranged by the resort, including mine: a 200-acre sporting clay-pigeon range. Within moments, I'm tracking the high-tech discs across the sky, only to discover that I'm a fairly good shot.

1:30 pm
The concierge puts me in a Jeep with a map, some sunscreen and a towel. Soon, I'm banking turns on a red-dirt road, dodging lava rock and, finally, I pop out on secluded Polihua Beach, only a few miles from The Lodge at Koele. The only inhabitant on this stretch of powdery sand, aside from a few sea turtles, is Nick Palumbo II – local boy, former pro surfer and my instructor for an afternoon of wave-riding. While practicing, Palumbo nods over my now-tanned shoulder at some visitors who have come to watch: A school of spinner dolphins not 50 yards out dance atop the water.

6:45 pm
After a sunset spent planted in a rocking chair on the lodge's expansive porch, pineapple cider in hand, it is time to head in for some sustenance. I sidle up to the Tea Room Bar, where a fireplace is being lit. Over aged scotch and ahi sashimi rose, I chat with the other guests, listening to their tales of adventure and sharing some of my own. Then, from the Great Hall, a trio begins strumming a ukulele, guitar and stand-up bass, mimicking the sounds of Hawaii's paniolos (cowboys), and explaining some of the lore that surrounds the great wooded isle of Lanai. It's now that I realize I am in a special place.