Well Rotorua STINKS! Yes it does - it literally smells of rotten eggs due to all the sulphur in the air! So our plans changed somewhat… we arrived there after having spent a part of the morning at the Craters of the Moon in Taupo which is an active geothermal field with thermal mud pools, craters, etc etc

The idea was to spend a night in Rotorua and watch the Wales v Ireland quarter final before heading back to Auckland to watch the second one on the Sunday. However, I really didn't fancy the idea of spending a night there, so convinced Chris that I could see and do everything that I had wanted to do by about 3pm and get back in time for the game or at least in time to watch it whilst it was deferred…

So that started the mad rush of a day, after making a quick stop to take my photo with some real muddy ponies we set off to do everything on the list. We drove to the Redwood Forest and walked around there for an hour and had some lunch then hopped off to the Polynesian Spa for a bit of relaxation in the Thermal Pools - we were told to take off all silver because it would turn it black but I forgot and so now have a slightly 'off silver' looking necklace - oops. It was so warm in there (and smelly) that we only managed 4 minutes, but if I'm honest I don't think you need much longer!

After that I went to Rainbow Springs Wildlife Park to see the Kiwi's and Chris went to get the van sorted; petrol, tyre pressures, water etc…

The park was lovely and I somehow managed to get included on a tour of the Kiwi exhibition which I didn't pay for but the woman wouldn't let me leave! Every time I tried to just 'walk off' she would say 'ohh Madam if you would just like to look here'...oh well…so I got to see the baby Kiwi's which was great and I was definitely happy that I did it. I also got to feed some of the biggest Trout I have ever seen - they were literally massive!

Once I'd done with all the things I wanted to see, I walked outside and Chris was waiting for me with the van all set to go, so off we went! The journey took just over 3 hours and we got back about 20 minutes after the game had started (and after we had stopped for some beer) and what a game it was!

The single best game of the tournament I would say it was absolutely brilliant, so exciting and both teams deserved to go through!

England and France however, was just a bit of a shambles the whole way through, I'm not entirely sure how either team has made it so far in the competition but still I think France deserved the win…

So it's down to Wales to fly the flag for the Home Nations - come on boys!!