Sure, the tigers, the elephants and the monkeys are always fun to watch at the Honolulu Zoo.

But the Keiki Zoo, tucked in the far reaches of the zoo, brings the zooper action to kiddie level.

Plenty of pint-sized adventures await. Many are hands-on geared for the wee ones.

We snared John Rhoades, our 8-year-old grandnephew, who is a third-grader at Royal School, to explore together. An aim-and-shoot camera helped document his day.

Pet the goats, see fish face-to-face, enjoy udder fun "milking" a faux cow, get in the moo'd at a barnyard with a real cow and two calves, get "caged" in empty cubicles behind chain-link fences.

John even made friends with a girl named Kaitlin he met on site.

Hot llama: "Where's the hump?" John asked. (Sorry, he thought the llama was a baby camel).

Water tube: "Cool," he said, of crawling through an acrylic tunnel in the koi tank. Midway, he waved from a portal.

Water wheel: At the edge of a pond, push two large barrels and you trigger wheel motion. "Finally working," John said, because it was kaput during an earlier encounter.

Horse sense: A pony peered over the fencing. "He's sooo friendly," John said.

Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com.