After breakfast we collected the hire car and were on our way travelling south towards Taupo. It was a long ride through agricultural land with a threatening sky above but luckily the rain held off. We stopped for a coffee in the small town of Cambridge, a lovely little place with a very English feel to it. We sat outside at the Deli on the main street and the young girl who served the coffee was proud to point out to me the dog on the top of my coffee (yes, really!!) Believe me I was imnpressed and I am ashamed to say that I actually took a photo of my coffee!! There's a first time for everything, trust me!!

We carried on until we reached Rotorua where we made another stop. There was a strong smell of sulphur in the air and we had a wander round the central park area and were amazed by the pools of bubbling mud and clouds of steam riing everywhere. Do local people understand how totally amazing it is to have this happening on your doorstep?

We paused at the lake to be amazed once again by the huge number of black swans, more than a hundred, floating lazily on the water before we set off once more on our journey to Taupo.

We arrived at beautiful Acacia Cliffs Lodge at about 5pm and were welcomed by our wonderful hosts Rick and Linda with wine and canapes. We settled down to watch New Zealand romp to a convincing win over Canada before enjoying a delicious gourmet dinner prepared by Rick. We ate far too much but who cares? We finished the evening with more rugby, Ireland v Italy this time. Ronnie,we are cheering for Ireland!!!