Find Grand Adventures in New Zealand

Your grandchildren should be at least 10 years old when you take them to New Zealand. That's the minimum age for bungy jumping off the Kawarau Bridge outside Queenstown.

Photo courtesy of AJ Hackett Bungy NZ

Kawarau Bridge Bungy

There's no maximum age, so you and the kids can jump one right after the other. If you choose, the crew will adjust the elastic bungy cord tethered to your ankles to dunk you in the river 141 feet below. Reluctant to get your spine re-aligned? Think of the admiration in your grandkids' eyes at having a grandparent willing to jump off a bridge with them. If not, you can always photograph the kids from the viewing platform at the side of the gorge. Or, buy a custom DVD from the AJ Hackett staff. AJ's the Kiwi who first figured out how to make a buck from bungy.Other aerial options include zip lines and swings strung just about anyplace high on New Zealand's North and South Islands, which are a 12-hour flight from the west coast of the U.S.

The South Island

Photo courtesy of Wildland Adventures

On the South Island's west coast, a day's drive from Queenstown, two glaciers continue to expand in the face of global warming. The Southern Alps catch clouds blown by westerly winds off the Tasman Sea. The moisture from those clouds falls on the peaks, feeding the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. The rivers of ice advance 16 feet a day down the mountains through lush forest nearly to the sea.

Pop for a helicopter ride up to the glaciers so you'll have plenty of energy to hike over the ice fields and play hide-and-seek with your grandkids in caves and tunnels of blue ice. The heli-hike companies provide leather boots, socks, and crampons, and a knowledgeable guide. The trip takes four hours, and the minimum age is 9.

It's easy to find hiking, river rafting, and kayaking throughout the islands. But for something to e-mail home about, book a seal swim in Abel Tasman National Park. The fur seals raise their pups on Tonga Island just off the golden sands of Onetahuti Beach. Your guide, John the Walrus, will help you don wet suits, flippers, and snorkel gear, sing songs, and spin stories on the boat ride over, then lead you into the water for a magical wildlife encounter. The grandkids won't soon forget floating nose to nose with a wild seal.

The minimum age is 12 for the seal swim. Children ages 8 and up can swim with wild dusky dolphins in Kaikoura. Those who don't choose to go into the ocean can view all the action from the boat.

Photo courtesy of Wildland Adventures

You can sign up for an all-inclusive New Zealand trip through Wildland Adventures, a Lord of the Rings-themed tour through Elderhostel, or, as we did, book B & B lodges yourself online. Our hosts were usually grandparents, some with visiting grandchildren. At Hikurangi Lodge, with an eye-popping view over Queenstown, Shirley and Barry Meyer are good company for you, and your grandkids might hit it off with Bryce, 12, and Aidan, 11, if they're around. Val and Brian Blewitt are generous hosts near Rotorua, and the kids made friends with native kids jumping off a footbridge into the stream flowing beside Waiteti Lodge.

The North Island

Sheep are everywhere in New Zealand. You can pull over during long drives and let the kids chase the wily, wooly animals for impromptu exercise, though I guarantee they won't catch any. But they can shear one, at Billy Black's Kiwi Culture Show near the Waitomo Caves on the North Island. Billy, or one of his crew, tells stories about New Zealand's settlement, demonstrates antique farm tools, brings out some animals and gets the audience involved. You can help split a log with a firecracker, and actually try your hand at shearing a sheep.

Photo courtesy of Waitomo Glowworm Caves

The glowworms in the Waitomo Caves were featured in the recent blockbuster TV series, Planet Earth, on the Discovery Channel. A 45-minute guided tour leads you through the underground caverns on foot, then by boat on a subterranean river. Ooh and aah at the glowworms glimmering on the ceiling like a million blue-green stars. Each worm — actually the larval stage of a fungus gnat – angles for insects by dangling strings of sticky goo and luring prey with its light.

Photo courtesy of Zorb Limited

In sulfur-stinky Rotorua — a city of hot springs, geysers, and pools of bubbling mud — take a gondola ride up Mt. Ngongotaha to Skyline Skyrides. You can relax in the restaurant at the top while the kids ride down their choice of three concrete tracks in a three-wheeled cart. A Kiwi innovation, the carts are powered by gravity — not engines — and controlled by a unique steering and braking system. A chairlift takes riders back up again.

Rotorua is also home of the Zorb, another uniquely Kiwi diversion. Crawl into a plastic ball the size of a VW Bug, then roll down a hill, laughing all the way as you and your grandkids tumble into each other. It's our happiest memory of our family's visit to New Zealand.