We left Oahu after somewhat of a roller coaster few days, so we decided a new island was going to be a fresh start and hopefully the times of stress would be put behind us. At first everything seemed perfect as Kona airport was exactly as we had hoped the Honolulu one would be: rather small with not much more than a few large huts as arrival and departure terminals, it was nicely lit and lovely and open. It really felt like Hawaii should feel. Our happiness didn't last long though as we rang our hotel to arrange for them to come pick us up: when we called them before our flight to arrange pick up, they refused to come until we landed incase our flight was delayed! At first they just didn't answer but after a few calls they finally did, only to try and talk their way out of picking us up and then tell us that our free shuttle would actually cost $40 and it would take them 45 minutes to get to us. To say we weren't happy is an understatement. This is another moment when it was a good job I was on the phone and not Matt. If it wasn't so late at night and we hadn't already given them our credit card details, Matt would have told them where to go, in not such a polite manner, and we would have found another hotel but we were a bit stuck. A woman at the information desk also told us that our hotel was nowhere near Kona so that didn't go down well either. As I sat in tears, we waited an hour for our shuttle to arrive. Surely, moments like this are exactly what e-mails were designed for: we tell you when we will arrive, you get there at that time, simple! We finally made it to our hotel and we kept our cool with the hotel owner who was clearly only interested in our money as she kept asking how much we'd spent so far on our travels. Matt very cleverly gave her lots of false answers and made a point of keep mentioning how poor we were now after so many months travelling, along with making digs about how late it was, how tired we were and how inconvenient it was to be so late getting to the hostel. It was nearly midnight by the time we finally made it there but as a bonus she upgraded us from a 6 bed dorm to a private double room! Well done Matt!
 
To be fair the hotel wasn't too bad and, with the upgrade, the owner had gone up in our books slightly, but we still decided we wouldn't stay there for the whole time we were on the Big Island as it turned out we were in the middle of nowhere pretty much and without a car there was nothing to do except walk to the Captain Cook monument to snorkel . 
 
On our first day, we decided to check out the Captain Cook monument as it was the only thing to do close by. One bonus was it was free for us to walk there as people usually pay over $100 to do boat trips to get to it. The walk down was fairly simple but felt much longer than the 2 miles we had been told. We walked through thick bushes and down very rocky hillsides for about an hour. The track was very gravelly which made it quite uncomfortable to walk on. It was a nice walk though with lovely views of the coast and this gave us our first look at how molten lava has shaped the island as most of the track was down old lava flows. Once at the bottom, you could clearly see how the lava have poured straight into the sea and we were greeted with a lovely snorkelling spot right next to the monument. The monument marks the place Captain Cook died after the native Hawaiians killed him in a fight on his return to the island. They felt very betrayed after finding out he wasn't the god they had thought he was when he first landed . The snorkelling was amazing with beautiful coral and so many fish and we got a special show from a huge group of wild spinner dolphins as they flipped and jumped out of the water right near us. We tried to swim out to them but whenever we got close they moved further away so we gave up on that idea and just watched them play from the monument.
 
After a few hours enjoying ourselves we started the walk back. This was much harder than coming down, as you would expect, so we were both very hot, sweaty and tired by the time we got to the top but it still only took us just over an hour. There was only 1 thing for it, alcohol! The wine was very cheap for a whopping 1.5l bottle but it tasted lovely and was just the sort of rosé we like. So, with our beer and wine we sat and planned our next few days. We then went for a lovely Italian meal over the road as it was the only food for over a mile and we weren't walking anymore, luckily it was absolutely delicious and not too expensive!
 
We had two main jobs for the next day: get a hire car and book a horse riding tour . So we got up pretty early and caught the bus to the airport where we hired a car for the duration of our stay. It wasn't as nice as the Mustang but it was still good enough. With our new wheels, we set off exploring the north of the island and headed to the Waipio Valley to book our horse riding. Whilst driving north you soon notice how the trees disappear and everything turns black. It was baffling but as far as you could see everything had been covered in lava so was just black. There were just miles and miles of nothing but old broken lava flows. With some of them you could clearly see the ripples of the flow but for most of it, it was just like sharp black rubble. It was like some kind of film set! We thought the Australian outback had nothing in it but this was far worse. It was like this for over an hour of driving which just shows how big the area was. We easily found somewhere to book our horse riding and they had space for us to do exactly what we wanted so it was worth the very long journey in the end. While we were there, we drove to the lookout and walked down to a viewpoint where we got some lovely photos looking out over the valley .
 
On our way back we stopped at one of the few beaches on the island and sat watching all the body boarders. They were so good as they did 360 spins and flips, watching them just made Matt want a go but we didn't have our swim stuff with us so he was happy watching. 
 
We had planned on driving back down to the centre of Kona for dinner and a few drinks that evening but these were soon ruined as it turned out the rash I had woken up with had got worse and I really didn't feel well at all! I'm still not certain whether it was a rash from the long grass on the way to the Captain Cook monument or mosquito bites as there were certainly quite a few mosquitoes about in the hotel but I was covered and Matt had only a few so it was hard to tell what had caused it. After initially being very defensive and insisting it wasn't bed bugs even though we had never suggested it was, the woman at the hotel was very helpful and gave me some cream and drove to the shop to get some limes as we'd read that fresh limes helps clear up mosquito bites . Matt rubbed the fresh lime on my legs and I'm really not sure if it actually worked or not but it itched like crazy so I don't really recommend it very much unless you are desperate (which I was!!).
 
I was feeling a bit better in the morning although I was still very itchy and red but I was brave and we headed back to the Waipio Valley. Our horse riding trip was brilliant. It turned out we were the only people that had booked that time so we had a private session instead of being in a group of 6 or 8. Our guide was very nice and helpful as we were both quite worried about getting on horses for the first time. We were introduced to our horses: mine was a brown one called Stanley and Matt's was a cream one called Trigger. They were both very experienced horses so were very laid back. Our first job was to ride them to the water and get them to have a drink. I got Stanley to the water but he was refusing to drink so the saying really is right about "you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink". Matt on the other hand was having more success as Trigger was obviously very thirsty . For the next 3 hours, we walked through the forest to the valley, along the rim and back to the stable stopping only for pictures and a half time rest for the horses. To say we were riding the horses makes it sound like there was some still involved on our part, which isn't true at all! The horses were so experienced they obviously knew the path so just walked themselves. We just had to stop them getting distracted and got them to speed up when we needed. It was such fun, we took it in turns leading the group eventually but to start with Stanley was being a bit shy and Trigger just wanted to follow Stanley but they soon relaxed and took the lead. Even one of the dogs from the stable came with us and ran all over the place to start with until he ran out of steam and had to have a sleep as we rested and then calmly walked back with us. The horses and the views were brilliant so we both really enjoyed our first ever horse ride. 
 
We spent the afternoon relaxing in a bar we found on the way back to the hotel as Game 7 of the NBA finals were on so Matt was very keen to see that and it was very cloudy outside by now so it was perfect timing . Matt was supporting the San Antonio Spurs but they lost to the Miami Heat but we still enjoyed watching the game. 
 
With my bites finally starting to clear up, the next morning we headed for the harbour as we were going swimming with dolphins with a company called Sunlight on Water. They were a nice company with a brilliant sized boat, a very friendly captain and 2 girls who were our swimming guides. No sooner had we finished our introduction and safety talk than we had to quickly get our snorkels and fins on as the captain had found some dolphins. It was amazing to see so many of them swimming straight towards us. Whilst they are swimming like this, they made us all get in the water so we were in their path, then they will swim past us all and we can swim alongside them. We all excitedly jumped in the crystal clear blue sea and anxiously waited. Within seconds we had lots of different sized dolphins swimming right past us. It was amazing! Some came up really close whereas others stayed a bit deeper but we could still see them . Once they had swum past, we all had to get back on the boat and the captain sped past them to do it again. 
 
The second swim was even more incredible than the first. Everyone was a lot more relaxed now as we knew what to expect and this time we saw lots more. It was incredible!.We got to see a mother swimming along with her young, the baby will swim very close to her under belly and as the mother swims she taps her fin on the back of the young to remind it to keep up. It was so cute to see and felt so special to be swimming alongside such beautiful creatures. Never in my life had I expected to be doing this so it was really special. The captain said we had been swimming amongst a super pod which contained around 250 dolphins. We were so lucky!
 
We followed the pod to get in front of them again but when they are swimming like that it's to look for a place to rest and this pod decided to rest right by the harbour's mouth, which is too dangerous for us to swim in with all the boat traffic, so we headed off going south along the coastline and we soon found another big pod resting in a safer place . When the dolphins find a place they want to rest, they will slowly swim in circles instead of in a straight line. Scientists have learnt that dolphins still have to breath when they're asleep so they actually somehow rest half their brain at a time. As they shut down half their brain the other half will keep them conscious enabling them to gently swim and still come to the surface to breath. Some can still be a bit playful as there's lots of them and they can all be in different states of sleep. They sleep like this during the day so they can go out in the deep waters at night to feed. 
 
When they are in a rest area like this, it's perfect for us to join them. It was much better than them swimming past us as they swam slowly enough for us to keep up with them and they literally swam all around us and within touching distance some of the time. Words can't describe how incredible it was to spend about 40 minutes calmly swimming with hundreds of dolphins, gently swimming and playing all around you . Although they are wild so they could bite us if they felt threatened, they really weren't bothered by us and some seemed to almost enjoy it as they played in the water. We were really helped by the weather being beautifully sunny for a change so the visibility in the water was the best we'd ever seen anywhere. Eventually it was time to get out and we got showered with food and drink on the boat as we headed back to the harbour. 
 
To add to the trip we met our first other English people in Hawaii and the man's mum actually lives in Norwich! They live in London but have been to Norwich many times to so it was lovely chatting with them and they gave us a few tips for the rest of our time on the island. After saying our goodbyes, we got in the car and headed for Hilo on the other side of the island as we were moving there today meaning we had a long drive ahead of us as it takes about 4 hours to get there without any stops! We did want to stop though, at a black sand beach we had heard about on the south coast of the island. It is always very strange to walk on black sand as it really doesn't seem right but it is entirely natural and is just another by product of being an island created out of a volcano! It is a beautiful bay, despite the black sand, and is made even more special as green sea turtles have made it their nesting area and sanctuary so we enjoyed watching some swimming in the sea, although sadly none came onto the shore while we were there!
 
After a bit of a bad start, we'd really enjoyed our time in Kona as we had two amazing brand new experiences: horse riding and dolphin swimming. I definitely feel our morning spent swimming with the dolphins will go down as one of the highlights of our entire trip as it was so magical.