THERE’s a thought that goes through your mind a fraction of a second after you’ve just jumped into thin air.

It’s not the near crippling fear as you look down to the ground or water rushing up at you or the exhilaration afterwards. Everyone is happy to impart those little gems.

No. The thing that no-one reveals is that the second after you’ve jumped off a perfectly good, solid platform or building, what you ask yourself is...‘How?’ How did my feet leave all that was safe and right in the world?

There is just a sheer disbelief that some part of you has decided to ignore all your best senses and stepped out into nothingness.

Automatically, blame culture kicks in: in my case my brain was right on to my knees, quickly identified as the traitorous element that decided to show hitherto unknown initiative and lead where the rest of my body had to then follow.

I just could not believe my knees would be so silly. They had always struck me as the anatomical part with the most common sense.

Still, I had been foolish enough to put them in that decision-making position not once but twice on my recent trip to New Zealand. A kind of Boy’s Own exercise to a destination which, let’s face it, offers more than its fair share of heart-in-the-mouth opportunities.

So I thought doing a freefall of 192 metres off the one-time tallest building in the southern hemisphere, Auckland’s Sky Tower, and a bungee off the city’s harbour bridge (a more modest 40 metres) would be a good way to start and see the sights.

And I was right. Both were brilliant and, ultimately, a test of nerve that I surprised myself I passed (albeit only thanks to those pesky knees).

Bungee company AJ Hackett runs the Harbour Bridge jump and is very strict in its rules: staff will not physically help you make that final jump. You do it yourself.

Of course, the staff at both venues are more than skilled in talking you to a point where you dare not fail them by chickening out.

The SkyJump at the Sky Tower is the more terrifying. You are connected by a harness at your back to two guidewires and then you just...jump. They stop you 10 metres down for a picture and then let you plummet, with the brakes only being applied in the final metres.

At about NZ$200 (£90) you only get 11-odd seconds of bang for your buck. The scenery across Auckland, one of the most beautiful harbour cities in the world, is fantastic, but it takes a few seconds to get your bearings and by then the ride is over.

The Harbour Bridge bungee is, for my money (NZ$120 – £55), a better bet.

Hackett has a pod up under Auckland’s Harbour Bridge and the overall experience is more thrilling.

Thrilling, though, wasn’t quite my thought at the start because I was the only one of our group who, strapped up, had to call a temporary halt to proceedings for an interminable minute for a boat to clear the area.

As you can imagine, it is the standing there, waiting, that tests the nerve.

So I waddled to the edge, ankles tightly bound, and stood there waiting. That test was helped though when, just as the boat zoomed off, across the opposite span, a group walking along the underside of the bridge decided to stop and have a little look-see at my jump.

The sudden doubling of those who would know my shame should I decide this was a bad idea was the final motivational push my knees needed.

You’re given the option of ‘touching’ the water with your hands, head or missing it – but with no guarantee. I discovered that uncertainty when my water touch turned into a full body immersion up to the ankles.

At least the water going into my mouth stifled the swearing all the way down – completely mistaken by the bungee crew as me “screaming like a girl”.

The thrill is the jump, but the pay-off is once your harness swings you into a sitting position you get to gaze up across one of the most beautiful harbours in the world as you’re winched back to safety.

The other great ‘xtreme’ thrill of the trip was much more ground-based: Zorbing.

A Zorb is a three-metre-tall inflated ball with a little nest inside to climb into. And then basically they just chuck you down a 180 metre winding or 150 metre straight track.

There’s no great science to it. According to your taste they can throw some water inside with you and as you bounce around you get a good feeling of what a detergent ball feels like inside a washing machine.

As long as you’re happy to let go – and there is seemingly no way you’ll get hurt – you get thrown around, tipped upside down and, it seems at one point, inside out.

Like anything extreme, the trips are quick, but at NZ$50 (£18), it is well worth it.

Zorbing is in Rotorua, the best must-see tourist stop in the whole country with its geothermal attractions such as geysers and boiling mudpools.

Of course, there are cheaper good times to be had, at a multitude of points along the coast.

Auckland itself has a number of good, safe swimming beaches, both in the city itself or on islands out in the harbour.

My oldest, Dylan, had several trips to the beach learning to surf on a boogieboard and a larger, almost experimental, children’s surfboard his Grampy had been building for him.

He may not be up to surfing the big waves off Auckland’s west coast beaches, but bodysurfing his way into shore on 2ft breakers was thrill enough for him.

Two other tourist attractions which are a must for kids are Auckland’s Zoo and Kelly Tarleton’s Aquarium.

The aquarium, a tunnel snaking though what were Auckland’s old sewerage tanks, is no longer unique, but it was the first construction of its kind.

And Auckland Zoo has come a long way in the past 30 years. While the habitats for the animals are far more realistic, it still retains the atmosphere of a city centre establishment.

And it is one of the places you are guaranteed to see New Zealand’s icon, the Kiwi, and other native birds getting to their high-jinks. Other highlights are the glowworm caves in Waitomo, and the magnificent Bay of Islands.

Christmas through to mid-March is the best time to go. Avoid (along with the woeful United Airlines service) making the trek during the English summer holidays because the weather is bad and the prices from here sky-high.

New Zealand has a reputation as home of extreme sports and, after scaring myself witless twice in seven days jumping off very tall things, you can see how it has been earned.

And my knees will back me up on that – now I’m talking to them again.

  • For further information and to see the videos go to: Skyjump skyjump.co.nz Harbour Bridge bungee bungy.co.nz/auckland-bridge-bungy Rotorua Zorb zorb.com/rotorua
  • THE TUNES:

The Great New Zealand Songbook, various artists

Okay, so New Zealand music doesn’t have a great reputation. The country’s most successful song was, after all, the one-hit wonder How Bizarre from 1995 (and poor old Pauly Fuemana died recently, penniless, having blown $NZ5m). The country is continuing to find its confidence musically so this double album with leading lights Ladyhawke, OpShop, the feelers, stellar* and the master Dave Dobbyn is a good taster.

  • THE WORDS:

Up Close, by Tana Umaga

RUGBY is the religion in New Zealand so immerse yourself in any of the books by ex-All Blacks. My favourite was former captain Tana Umaga, a lad who hauled himself up from quiet outsider to outstanding leader. And you get convinced that Brian O’Driscoll and Alastair Campbell should stop moaning about the ruck clear-out that saw the Irishman suffer a bit of a sore shoulder. Yup, it’s a man’s game.