I wanted to talk about that dubious penalty that kept a subpar Australia in the Rugby World Cup. But international Friendship Forces were against me.

Anne Vaughan from Hobart will have none of it. 'Talking to the wrong person,” she says. Although she admits the Aussies were lucky, which was nice.

Instead, Anne wants to talk park benches, the Te Puna Quarry Park and Friendship Force International. 'A wonderful experience, especially if you weren't expecting it,” she says after a morning at the quarry.

Friendship Force? 'It's a kind of international cultural exchange programme,” explains Sheryl Farrow of Te Puna. Sheryl is this week playing host to Aussies Anne and her husband Frank.

Sheryl and her Tauranga-Western Bay of Plenty Friendship Force is looking after 18 members of the Hobart Club, showing them how we tick in Tauranga.

'Last year we went to Germany and the Netherlands.” Next year Sheryl has Long Island, New York and Sydney dropping in for a week apiece. 'Then we're off to Tamworth and Brisbane.” Australia one year, and Europe or America the next.

Sheryl also has Belgium, England, America and South Africa ticked off in her passport. She's been around.

Cultural exchange probably explains it as it is. Like-minded people around the globe sharing their homes, their cultures, experiences, food, language and stories. And the host club always organises five days of activities during the week-long stays.

'It's all about local knowledge,” says Sheryl. 'We get to go places and do things that the average tourist wouldn't get to do or see. That's because as hosts we want to show of our home town to its best.”

Anne of Hobart, who is this week parked up at Sheryl's place, points to her quarry experience.

'If someone had asked me if I wanted to go to a quarry I probably wouldn't have been that interested. But it was an absolutely wonderful experience.”

And that park bench. Well, the Friendship Force donated it to Te Puna Quarry. 'We quite often take FF groups there, so now we have somewhere special to go.”

But what about the difficult experiences, when strangers meet and just don't click. That must be uncomfortable, so they have trouble-shooters.

'One person is named exchange director and they stay with the exchange director of the host group. If there's a problem, they ring and say this isn't working for us and they change it for you.”

It's a very rare occurrence according to Sheryl and nothing is insurmountable. 'You figure you are only there for five days and most of the time you are out doing and seeing things. It might not be the best arrangement but it's only for a few days.”

But 90 per cent of the time, it works just fine. Like in the Farrow house this week – there's been a lot of trans-Tasman banter going down.

'Taking the mickey at every chance in true Kiwi-Aussie tradition,” says Sheryl.

Last week Sheryl and Anne didn't know each other. Today they trading shots, laughing and talking patchwork – just one other thing they've found in common.

'Yes, getting on well with her, not a problem” says Anne.

'She's very nice, lots of fun,” says Sheryl. The forces of FF are at work in Te Puna.

But it doesn't always work quite as well. Like when Anne hosted a woman from Indonesia.

'There were language difficulties and even if she nodded her head and said ‘Yes, yes, yes', we were never sure if she understood.”

And as a devout Muslim she believed her hair was something intimate that needed to be covered, so in the evenings when she would normally remove her headscarf she had to stay covered in front of Anne's husband Frank.

But it was just a small problem that a cultural exchange can throw up and one that has to be resolved.

Even now Sheryl and Anne are looking for new adventures beyond Te Puna and Tauranga. Sheryl has her eye on Canada and Anne on Japan and Korea.

The Friendship Force programme was founded by a Presbyterian minister in 1977 and promoted by the peanut farmer president, Nobel Peace Prize winner and peace negotiator Jimmy Carter.

And for its first its first five years FF used a chartered aeroplane to shuttle between partner cities. Now, there are more than 400 worldwide exchange programmes every year, often forging life-long friendships.

Sheryl and Anne may have started another.