Top shore tours for cruisers in New Zealand, Australia

Planning a cruise around Australia or New Zealand for 2013? It wasn't long ago that the number of shore tours available to cruisers in ports such as Melbourne, Australia, and Dunedin, New Zealand, was limited. But the boom in cruising in the region is sparking a surge in new options.

Among top offerings in some of Australia and New Zealand's most popular ports:

-- Sydney, Australia. Day tours arranged by cruise ships (such as Royal Caribbean's $99-a-person "Sydney Sights, Opera House & Bondi Beach") often pair visits to the city's famed Opera House and other landmarks with a stop at one of its world-renown beaches. But cruisers also can piece together their own tour mixing attractions and a beach by signing up for the city's hop-on, hop-off tour buses ($27 per adult; citysightseeing.com) or unrelated hop-on, hop-off tour boats ($42, captaincook.com.au). Another popular if pricey outing is a climb up the Sydney Harbour Bridge ($209-$335 per adult; bridgeclimb.com), which like the Opera House is located within walking distance of the Overseas Passenger Terminal where many ships dock.

-- Auckland, New Zealand. New Zealand's largest city has a bridge climb of its own on the Auckland Harbour Bridge ($101 per adult, bungy.co.nz), and the adventurous also can bungee jump from the bridge for a slightly higher cost. But many visitors head out of town to tour the vineyards near the city or the Waitakere Range and black sand beaches to the West. Local tour operator Bush and Beach offers a half-day "Wilderness Experience" that includes a walk to a waterfall in Waitakere Ranges Regional Park and a beach stop ($118, bushandbeach.co.nz); the company's Auckland area wine tours start at $177. Bush and Beach also offers half-day city tours for $63 per person.

-- Tauranga, New Zealand. While you can spend the day in this cozy beach-side town, a more activity-packed option is to take a tour to nearby vacation hub Rotorua, home to geothermal fields, Maori cultural sites and a wide range of kid-friendly amusements. Local tour companies such as Xquizit Limousines & Tours will pick you up at Tauranga's cruise pier in small vans and take you to some of Rotorua's top attractions for the day ($84 to $131 per person, depending on attractions included; Xquizit.co.nz). The typical tour includes a visit to Te Puia, a Maori-run complex that features several acres of geothermal attractions including a geyser; a Maori cultural performance and adjacent wood-carving center; and a live kiwi bird exhibit (the $48 admission, including a cultural performance, is included in some group tours; tepuia.com). A top family-friendly stop is Skyline Rotorua, where a gondola takes visitors up a mountain to the world's first mountain luge -- an adventure activity that involves steering a three-wheeled car down a paved mountain track ($21 per adult for the gondola ride; skyline.co.nz).

-- Napier, New Zealand. Known for its Art Deco architecture, Napier's downtown can be taken in on a self-guided walking tour (ask for a free map at the information center). The town also is a hub for tours to nearby Hawke's Bay wineries and an unusually accessible cliff-side colony of 20,000 gannets about an hour away at Cape Kidnappers. Winery tours can be booked on board cruise ships for about $100 per person. Locally based Gannet Safaris Overland offers tours to see the gannets ($155 per person; gannetsafaris.nz).

-- Dunedin, New Zealand. One of the most popular attractions in this Scot-founded town is the Taieri Gorge train excursion, which usually costs about $200 if booked through a cruise ship. But wildlife lovers may be more interested in tours to the rare yellow-eyed penguins that live along a peninsula not far from the town center. The easiest place to view the penguins is at Penguin Place ($41 for adults, $10, children; penguinplace.co.nz), a private preserve that boasts cleverly hidden blinds from which visitors can get a close-up view of the rare birds. Tours by private car that include a stop at Penguin Place are available from local companies such as Classic Jaguar Limousines (half day tours from $296 per car; classicjaguar.co.nz).

-- Melbourne, Australia. The cosmopolitan city on Australia's southern coast offers high-end shopping and a restaurant-lined river walk, but it's also a great base for exploring Australia's unusual wildlife in nearby preserves. Local wildlife tourism pioneer Echidna Walkabout offers a range of intimate outings to see kangaroos, koalas, emus and other Australian animals in grasslands and forests within an hour's drive of the city (eight-hour tours from around $190 per adults; echidnawalkabout.com.au). The company also offers longer, three- and four-day wildlife outings that would appeal to cruisers beginning or ending trips in Melbourne. For those who prefer city touring, a popular option with cruisers is a ride on the city's unusual Colonial Tramcar Restaurant, a set of three 1920s-era tram cars that offer morning tea while taking customers around the city via its still-functional tram car tracks (book on board ships for around $170 per person). Another top spot for tourists, literally, is the Eureka Skydeck, on the 88th floor of the city's tallest building and billed as the highest indoor viewing platform in the Southern Hemisphere ($19 admission for adults; eurekaskydeck.co.au).