Jack's Point Golf Club, on Lake Wakatipu, beneath the Remarkables Range, South Island, New Zealand

New ZealandFebruary 10, 20153 min read

Dateline February 10, 2015, Jack's Point Golf Club

Jack's Point Golf Club, on Lake Wakatipu

The name.

The first question the pro at Jack's Point gets is, "Is it named for Jack Nicklaus?"

The real story:

Jack's Point takes its name from Jack Tewa, better known as Māori Jack, who, among other exploits, saved two friends from drowning after their boat overturned in Lake Wakatipu in 1862, close to what is now the Jack's Point village. He is also credited with the first discovery of gold in the Arrow River that same year, which started the gold rush in the area.

The course.

It is a beautiful golf course that has been rated as one of the top in the world. The views are spectacular from every vantage point.

What made it more amazing was that it had snowed the evening before, and the Remarkables Range that overlooked the course had snow-capped peaks for our round.

An interlude on the second hole.

As we played the second hole, an airplane flew in overhead and landed on the grass strip down below the second tee.

Airplane landing on the strip below the second tee

It then took off again almost immediately, this time carrying a load of skydivers up for their jumps.

Skydivers descending in front of the Remarkables

The chutes opened and we watched them drift down in front of the Remarkables, landing near the end of the grass landing strip. As we finished the third hole, we drove across a small road through a stone wall to the fourth tee, where we were blessed with sensational views looking out at the high ranges across Lake Wakatipu.

The round.

The views continued for the rest of the round. The course is a true links, and you do not see the clubhouse again until you finish the eighteenth.

Pete, Bunny, and John overlooking Lake Wakatipu

Our joint reaction to the course was that it was one of the most beautiful and most challenging we had ever played. Our comment to the pro afterward was that it was the most wonderful day of golf we had ever played anywhere.

Round two.

We were scheduled to play The Hills in Arrowtown the next day, and we were rained out. We tried to reschedule for our last day in Queenstown and they could not give us a tee time, so we decided to re-play Jack's Point. While we were arranging it, we met a local Queenstown resident who told us, sotto voce, that Jack's Point was a far superior venue to The Hills anyway. So we considered ourselves blessed with that second day on the course.

Farewell to New Zealand.

That second round at Jack's Point ended our golf in New Zealand. It was a spectacular ending to a country that had given us, in the course of a few weeks, the Bay of Islands and Kauri Cliffs, Cape Kidnappers and Bunny's hole-in-one, the WWI aircraft at Omaka, the seal colony at Ōhau Point, Stephanie's family history at Lake Tekapo, and the rest.

Our many thanks to Will Owen, who arranged it all through Playing Around New Zealand.

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