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Zorbing in Rotorua, North Island
In the sulfur-stinking, hot-springs-resort town of Rotorua, I discovered zorbing. A Kiwi invention, to zorb is to roll down a long, steep hill inside a massive plastic beach ball, either "dry" (strapped into a harness), or "wet" (unharnessed, with a few buckets of water and some healthy squirts of "fairy liquid," as the Kiwis call dishwashing soap, added.) After seeing a Taiwanese woman emerge from her dry zorb covered in vomit, I opted to wash-cycle my way down the 500-foot hill. Good choice: laughing uncontrollably, I was able to stay upright through the ride while the lubricious ball whipped around me. Cowabunga! (011-64-7-357-5100; www.zorb.com)

Shark Diving at Kaikoura, South Island
What could be more fun than donning scuba gear and climbing into a cage five feet underwater where hungry sharks patrol the seas? Better known for its softcore whale-watching excursions in the Pacific, the seaside town of Kaikoura also offers ways to cha-cha with the local club of Chondrichthyes — usually blue and mako sharks. Spare limbs not included. (Shark Dive, www.sharkdive.co.nz; email, sharkdive@ihug.co.nz)

Caving in Waitomo, North Island
Waitomo sits atop a system of 360 limestone caves; cheesy tours to observe galaxies of glowworms (phosphorescent fly larvae) are the main event. But operators also offer everything from "blackwater" cave floats to 328-foot rappels into the Lost World sinkhole, a misty plant-filled purgatory where you'd expect to see lumbering dinosaurs. On another caving trip, dubbed the Haggas Honking Holes, I spent four grimy hours climbing, grovelling, squirming, and rapelling through waterfalls in a narrow cave — and it was one of the most fun events of my journey. (Waitomo Adventures; www.waitomo.co.nz)

The Awesome Foursome in Queenstown, South Island
The country's adventure capital, Queenstown, served me up the ultimate one-day, four-course buffet o' thrills — starting with a 440-foot bungee jump from the Nevis Highwire (the highest bungee jump in New Zealand). Swan diving from the little hut strung up on a cable spanning the valley was scary enough, but I was the terrifying sensation of rapid acceleration toward the rock-strewn gorge below that prompted the undie-change. Next, on to a blistering jetboat ride along a stretch of the Shotover River, followed by a stomach-turning helicopter flight through Skipper's Canyon, a narrow slot near Coronet Peak, before rafting through the Class II-IV rapids on yet another nine-mile leg of the Shotover, where the boat flipped and I got flushed through Toilet Bowl Rapids alongside Zonker, the Canadian river guide. (Queenstown Combos, www.combos.co.nz)

Sky-Jumping in Auckland, North Island
If you've just jetted in on a 12-hour haul from LAX and your spine feels like a Krazy Straw, there's only one thing to do: jump 630 feet off the Sky Tower, Auckland's most prominent landmark. Consider the Sky Jump a BASE jump with training wheels. A winch-controlled cable attached to a body harness allows you to plummet all the way to street level, keeping your speed at 37mph and gingerly slowing to set you down on the pavement far, far below. (www.skyjump.co.nz)

Fly-by-Wire in Wellington, North Island
The Fly By Wire, billed as the "world's fastest adventure ride," will have you feeling like Wily E. Coyote as you lie face-down on a high-speed, one-person rocket tethered to by a 200-foot cable to a fixed point high above a wide valley. You control speed and direction: mash down on the throttle and for six minutes (when the ride stops itself) you'll experience speeds up to 105mph and forces up to three g's, all while dolled up in a spiffy red jumpsuit and goggles. Meep-meep. (www.flybywire.co.nz)

Diving the Poor Knights Islands, North Island
Finning into the pristine depths of Long Cave, it was easy to see why Jacques Cousteau rated the waters around this handful of rocky islands (a marine park 15 miles out to sea from the village of Tutukaka) among his Top 10 favorite dive destinations in the world. As I swam deep into the darkening blue of the narrowing cave, the visibility was easily 100 feet, and long stabs of sunlight pierced the bubbles from my regulator. Crayfish longer than my forearms scuttled from the glare of my underwater torch, speckled moray eels watched me from their lairs, and two-foot long rockfish chilled on the cliffs alongside. (www.diving.co.nz.)

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