Free city tours in the land of the Kiwi

New ZEALAND, where backpackers first strapped on bungees, rolled around in inflated Zorbs (which are like human-size hamster balls) and hopped on their own budget bus lines, has another idea: free city tours.

Funded by local tourism operators who want to show off their services, the service has begun in Auckland and Christchurch and is expected to start in Sydney, Australia, in the next few months.

Guides from Stray Travel (www.straytravel.co.nz) provide information about the city's history and culture and point out key sites and activities. So while budget-stretching backpackers get a free city orientation, they also are exposed to local tourist services. Stray Travel offers its tours in other parts of New Zealand.

"It's an opportunity to know more about your options in the area before you make money-spending or budget-depleting decisions," says Stray Travel owner Neil Geddes.

In Auckland, buses leave from the Base Backpacker hostel (www.basebackpackers.com), at 16-22 Fort St. The 391-bed hostel offers private and shared rooms, with beds starting at $18. It's known for its "Stuff Your Face at Base" buffet, which includes a beer, wine or soft drink, for $7. Base hostels also feature an upgraded women-only floor with white linen duvets, feather pillows and Aveda bath products.

New Zealand's Youth Hos- tel Assn. (www.yha.co.nz) announced that its recently renovated Wellington hostel has been awarded five stars — the highest possible rating — by Qualmark, an independent assessment service used by New Zealand Tourism to rate all types of accommodation. Although Auckland, Christchurch and Queenstown are more popular destinations, Wellington is on the route for those traveling by sea between the North and South islands.

The 320-bed Wellington hostel, in the center of the city at 292 Wakefield St., has double, twin and quad-share rooms, some with spectacular harbor views. Beds start at about $18 a night.

The neighboring Base Backpackers, at 21-23 Cambridge Terrace, attracts a young crowd. It also has a women-only Sanctuary floor, and the popular Base- ment Bar with a DJ every night. Also in the neighborhood: the impossible-to-miss four-star Wildlife House Backpackers (www.wildlifehouse.co.nz), an eight-story, zebra-striped building at 58 Tory St.

All three hostels are less than a 10-minute walk from Te Papa, New Zealand's waterfront national museum. The diverse exhibits include the skeleton of the famed racing horse Phar Lap and the wooden boat used by the survivors of the Shackleton expedition to navigate themselves out of the Antarctic.

The free museum, which opened in 1998, has a giant glass wall that overlooks the water and the main courtyard. The building was designed to withstand earthquakes — Wellington is on a fault — and in case of a tsunami, the water would wash through without taking important artifacts with it.

For other hostel information Down Under, the website Budget Backpackers Hostels New Zealand (www.bbh.co.nz) has useful bulletin boards and ratings for 350 hostels gathered from annual surveys.