Oceania
19 adventures documented
New ZealandWill Owen - Playing Around New Zealand As we bid adieu to New Zealand there are many thanks to our many hosts along the way. Staying in the various Bed and Breakfasts along the way gave us a great appreciation for tra...
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New ZealandThe first question the pro at Jack's Point gets is whether the course is named for Jack Nicklaus. It is not. It is named for Jack Tewa, known as Māori Jack, who saved two friends from drowning when their boat overturned on Lake Wakatipu in 1862, near 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 set off the gold rush in the region. The course is one of the top-rated in the world. Snow fell the night before we played, so the Remarkables Range stood over us in white. On the second hole, an airplane landed on the grass strip just below the tee, then took off almost immediately with a load of skydivers, whose chutes opened against the mountains as we played on. The fourth tee is across a small road and through a stone wall, with views down Lake Wakatipu and out to the high ranges. It is a true links: you do not see the clubhouse again until you walk off the eighteenth green. We agreed that it was the most beautiful and challenging course we had ever played, and we told the pro so. We were rained out at The Hills the next day, and the local advice was that Jack's Point was the better course anyway, so we went back and played it a second time. That second round was the end of our golf in New Zealand. It was a spectacular ending.
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New ZealandWe came down into the valley to our final base in New Zealand, the Millbrook Resort, just outside Queenstown. The one-lane bridges in this part of the country are a queueing art form, watching the arrows to figure out who has the right of way. We checked into a two-bedroom cottage on the golf course. It was Pete's birthday on the 6th, so we let him pick dinner; he wanted to eat in. Janice and Bunny made the grocery run and came back with the most beautiful rainbow we had seen in a while. The week that followed was a series of rounds at Millbrook, a side trip to Arrowtown for Stephanie's recommended tapas at La Rumbla, an introduction to New Zealand's Blue Duck vodka, an extra night that Will Owen rescued for us when we found an error in our own schedule, a rained-out tee time at The Hills (refunded), a visit to the Kiwi Birdlife Park, the Queenstown gondola, and two old men attempting the Haka in front of an All Blacks poster. We close out New Zealand at Jack's Point, in the next post.
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New ZealandWe left Wellington early to catch the ferry south, North Island to South Island, a three-hour crossing. Interesting detail: the cars are parked on recessed railroad tracks (with the trains evidently elsewhere that morning). Rainy weather, so the views were less than postcard-perfect, but the ride was enjoyable. On the other side we drove to the Vintners Retreat in the Marlborough Valley, home of some of the best Sauvignon Blanc in the world. We had a few hours of tasting time and used them well. Four wineries: Huia, Glissan, Nautilus Estates, and Wairau River Wines, all in or near Blenheim. We left every one with at least one bottle, and finished the afternoon with ten bottles between us, a mix of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot. Dinner cooked at the cottage, an old golf movie, an early night. In the morning, on to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre, where Sir Peter Jackson's WWI aircraft collection and Weta Workshop dioramas make up the 'Knights of the Sky' exhibition. Pete is an airplane nut, with sixty-five model planes that he flies at home, and he called it the best WWI aircraft display he had ever seen. From there, on to Terrace Downs.
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New ZealandWe left the Marlborough Valley early in the morning and drove south toward Christchurch. We made a roadside stop on the way and discovered we were at the Ōhau Point Seal Colony, a New Zealand fur seal breeding ground about twenty-five kilometers north of Kaikōura. Pupping season had just passed, and there were many babies playing on the rocks and in the tidal pools, and a few having lunch with their mothers. In Christchurch we checked into the Classic Villa B&B, an 1850s home where the lovely Alisa met us at the door. The city was four years out from the February 2011 earthquake that killed 185 people and demolished much of the center. The recovery was slow. The shops had moved into temporary buildings on the edge of the reconstruction zone. A San Francisco infrastructure expert who was staying at the B&B told the hostess that Christchurch had taken more damage than San Francisco's quake. We ate lamb burgers for dinner. Janice was wiped out from driving and called it early. At breakfast the next morning, Janice fell into a long conversation with two sheep farmers, and we got a whole education on the NZ sheep and beef business. Then on toward Terrace Downs, where we encountered a herd of sheep doing the highway maintenance work.
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New ZealandWe arrived at Terrace Downs on time, but the wind was blowing about forty miles per hour with gusts up to sixty, so golf was out. The course sits in a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains, and the wind comes howling through. The staff at the clubhouse kindly moved our tee time to the following morning and pointed us toward Methven, a small village nearby with a few cafes. We poked around the stores (hardware first, of course) and had a lovely lunch at Cafe 131. We were booked into the Quickenberry B&B, where we were greeted with the news that we had been 'upgraded' to a villa at the golf course. We suspected an overbooking. Will Owen had told us the previous week's guests had been there with no issues. We did drive back to Quickenberry for dinner and the next morning's breakfast, both of which were exceptional. The villa had nice views over the course and a beautiful moon that evening. The next morning the wind had calmed enough to play. The course was in decent shape, the greens slow, a few blind shots, and the vistas of the mountains and rivers were stunning. By the last five holes, the wind was back at thirty-plus and the golf got a little crazy. Lunch at the clubhouse, where Bunny ordered the Green Lip Mussels. Then on to Lake Tekapo.
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New ZealandOur next stop was Lake Tekapo, where Stephanie and Alistair welcomed us into the Lodge at Lake Tekapo. The first day was cold (10°C) and raining, and the mountains across the lake were bare. Stephanie pointed us at Kohan, the Japanese restaurant down the hill on the lake, where we had fresh alpine salmon sushi raised in the local canals, possibly the best salmon we have ever eaten. In the morning the mountains had snow on them. Over breakfast, we asked Stephanie about her family. She is a fifth-generation New Zealander, and her story turned out to be one of the most remarkable we heard on the whole trip: gold rushes and shepherds in Stirling, Scotland in 1857, a Glasgow doctor who drowned en route to the Chinese mining settlement, a class photo from a 1966 girls' prep school that proved she and Alistair had sat next to each other thirty-six years before they thought they met. After breakfast, on to the Church of the Good Shepherd, the lakeside stone chapel dedicated in 1935 with the plate-glass altar window that opens onto the mountains and the lake. Then the drive to Queenstown, by way of Mt Cook, Lake Wanaka, and the Crown Range Road, on Stephanie's recommendation. Pictures say it all.
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New ZealandAfter a fantastic breakfast at Millhills, we took the road south for Wellington. The drive ran along the coast, through small beach towns, on routes 56 and 58. We pulled into Wellington and checked into the Museum Art Hotel for two nights. The hotel has a restaurant called Hippopotamus, and sure enough, from our balcony there was a very large Hippo looking back at us. The National Museum is across the street. An entire floor is given over to the social history of New Zealand, and we spent the afternoon on the Māori exhibits and the Treaty of Waitangi, signed February 6, 1840. Some patterns there felt familiar from US history. The next morning we drove up the coast for a round at Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club, a true links course. It was raining. Then it was raining harder. We walked in after nine holes, took hot showers, and caught up on the blogs. For dinner the concierge sent us to Chow's, an Asian-fusion tapas place two blocks away, up three floors in an old-fashioned elevator. We ordered most of the menu. Next morning, the ferry to the South Island.
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New ZealandFrom Millhills Lodge to Cape Kidnappers, the Tom Doak course on Julian Robertson's six-thousand-acre former sheep farm on Hawke's Bay. The TomTom got us to the entrance in thirty minutes. Then we learned it was another fifteen-minute drive on the inside road just to reach the clubhouse, narrow and winding and lined with speed bumps. Like Kauri Cliffs, we were among only eight players on the course that day. The staff was mostly young Americans on their post-college golf years, one from Penn State, all on their way back to the US to take jobs at courses there. We played the first two holes. We arrived at the third. Peter, Janice, and John all missed the green. Then Bunny stepped up and put it in the cup for her first hole-in-one. From there the course winds in and out of the fingers of land that drop straight off the cliffs, with cows as our gallery and electric fencing going up around us. At the turn the lodge brought down sandwiches. The back nine plays along the cliff edges, with the danger signs to match. Back to Millhills Lodge for Penny's gourmet dinner.
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New ZealandThursday morning, one more goodbye to Pat and Russell at Ambleside, and on to Kinloch Golf Club. Kinloch was designed by Jack Nicklaus, about seven years before our visit, for a wealthy New Zealander who knew nothing about golf. Phil, the club's golf professional, joked that the owner probably googled 'best golfer in the world,' found Jack, and asked him to build a course. Whatever the path was, the result is exceptional. The land itself does most of the work. Nicklaus barely moved any of it. The course is links-style, with carries that punish the wrong club, but it is one of the most beautiful layouts we have seen on the trip so far. We chose the white tees at 6,500 yards. They were a little too much for our games, but we did not care. Of the four courses we had played in New Zealand by this point, Kinloch was the most interesting and the most challenging. For a low handicapper it would be a great test. For us it was difficult, beautiful, and worth playing again. After the round we packed up and headed for Hawke's Bay and Millhills Lodge, with Cape Kidnappers on the schedule for the next day.
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New ZealandAfter the round at Kinloch, we drove on to Hawke's Bay for a two-night stay at Millhills Lodge. TomTom led us to a small plot of land with several cows looking at us. A call to Sam Jackman told us we were two hundred yards from the actual turn-in. We were greeted by Penny and Sam and their dog Kip, given a tour of the cabins, pointed at the nearest liquor store (the vodka and rum supplies on the trip were running thin), and welcomed in for two of the most enjoyable days of the trip. The lodge sits on several acres surrounded by Penny's family farms, sheep on one side and cattle on the other. Dinner the first night at a place called Diva. The second night, Penny cooked for us at the lodge, a three-course dinner that closed with a Pavlova, and we spent the evening with Penny and Sam over Hawke's Bay wines. Between the two evenings was a day at Cape Kidnappers, where Bunny made her first hole-in-one. Eggs Benedict on the last morning. Hawke's Bay was wonderful.
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New ZealandExtra, extra, read all about it. Bunny made her first hole-in-one on the third hole at Cape Kidnappers. Some backstory. The day before, on the practice range at Wairakei, Bunny had set her clubs down on the grass. When she picked them up, there was duck poop on her clubs, her arm, and a little on her shirt. We all told her: bird poop is good luck. We had no idea how right we would turn out to be. The next day, on the third hole at Cape Kidnappers, with a Callaway ball that had a 3 stamped on it, on the 30th day of the month, on the third day in a row of New Zealand golf, Bunny put it in the cup. Cape Kidnappers later sent us a photo of the plaque with her name engraved on it. Bunny's was the second hole-in-one of the year on that course. The first one belonged to a PGA pro.
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New ZealandOut of Auckland and south to Taupo, with a stop at Rotorua along the way for the geysers and the mud cauldrons and the rest of New Zealand's small-Yellowstone thermal show. We arrived at the Ambleside B&B in Taupo and were met by our hosts, Pat and Russell Jensen, who poured us tea and wine and sat with us for an hour while we got to know them. They had raised two sons on a deer and sheep farm near Hawke's Bay and sold the farm twenty years ago to build this place. Russell's story of getting out of the venison business after Chernobyl, the Norway lamb paradox, the hawks that pick off the lambs at birthing time. Dinner at a lakeside restaurant down the hill at sunset. The next day we played Wairakei and came back to the hot tub — heated by the geothermal water that runs under the property, so hot it takes a hose of cold water to cool it down to soak in. Pat did our laundry for a nominal fee. Two nights here. Off to Huka Falls and then on to Kinloch and the Jack Nicklaus course.
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New ZealandGoodbyes after breakfast at Swallow Ridge, then south back toward Auckland for our second round of New Zealand golf at Gulf Harbour, the Robert Trent Jones design that hosted the 1998 World Cup of Golf. Jones likens the course to Pebble Beach. Pete and Bunny had been with us on the Robert Trent Jones Trail in Alabama in 2012, so we were happy to be playing another Jones course together. An early afternoon tee time, a clubhouse sandwich, a few range balls, and out we went. The front nine was a pleasant layout, challenging in spots but not punishing. The back nine climbs up to the cliffs above the Hauraki Gulf, with views back across to Auckland and the Sky Tower in the distance. We absolutely loved the back nine. Off to Panorama Heights in Western Auckland for the night, then south in the morning to our next golf course and our next B&B.
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New ZealandAbout an hour from Gulf Harbour, up into the Waitakere Range in West Auckland, to Panorama Heights, our bed and breakfast for the night. Our hosts Allison and Paul had been running the place for sixteen years and had it set up beautifully. The B&B was the upper of two houses on the property, perched high on a steep hillside, with a porch looking straight out across the bay to downtown Auckland and the Harbour Bridge. The sun went down, the city lights came up, and we stood out there for a while. A country breakfast in the morning that we ate with Allison and Paul at the table, along with a short history of the Waitakere preserve below and the kauri trees that once covered it. Then came the small mystery: did we know what a panel beater was? We did not. With some hints, we figured out it was the Kiwi term for an auto body repair person. Then Paul took us outside to show us his cars, a brand-new red Jaguar F-Type and a fully restored 1967 E-Type, both done by the resident panel beater himself.
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New ZealandA ten o'clock tee time at Wairakei Golf and Sanctuary, just up the road from Pat and Russell's place in Taupo. The course is owned by a wealthy Taupo dairy farmer the locals refer to as Smiley, because no one has ever seen him smiling. The course was designed by the British architect Commander John Harris, who routed it through one of the most active geothermal landscapes in the country. It was in the world top 100 in the 1970s, fell on hard times for years, and has been pristine since Smiley took it over. The entire course is fenced as a wildlife sanctuary, to keep out the rodents that would eat the kiwi birds and other native species. You drive your cart up to a gate, the gate opens, and you are in. Beautiful entry, beautiful Maori totem at the gate, and a round of golf with pheasant, quail, and the occasional mother bird and chick wandering across the fairway. Back to Ambleside for another evening with Pat and Russell.
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New ZealandOut of Auckland early Saturday morning, heading north for our first New Zealand golf round at Kauri Cliffs. The hostess at the Whangarei information center sent us out on the first "Loop" to Tutukaka, two hours of cliffside driving that returned us to within ten kilometers of where we had started. We did it again on the second Loop. By the time we reached Russell it was too late to look around, so we caught the short ferry across to Kerikeri and our B&B at Swallow Ridge, where Mike and Chris welcomed us in. Mike and Chris had moved from London seven years before and built the place themselves in 2009. The bedroom slider opened directly to the Bay of Islands. Sunrise was something. After Kauri Cliffs the next day, Mike booked us into a local restaurant, and we came back to Swallow Ridge for one of the better nights' sleep of the whole trip.
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New ZealandA thirty-five-minute drive from Kerikeri took us off the main road and onto a mile of dirt road that had us wondering if TomTom had us lost. Then the gate appeared. Cameron, the assistant golf pro, met us in the drive, loaded our carts, and pointed us out to the course. Seventy-five degrees and sunny, a soft breeze, and only six other players on the course for the whole day. The course was designed by David Harman of Orlando, Florida, who died of lung cancer at fifty-one not long after completing this design. The owner is Julian Robertson, the Tiger Management founder, who fell in love with New Zealand as a young man on a writing year and later built both Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers on cliffs above the Pacific. The front nine plays over fantastic vistas out to the Bay of Islands. On the back, John birdied ten, birdied eleven, and parred twelve before reality returned on thirteen. Janice shot eighty-three from the men's tees at six thousand-plus yards. Pete and Bunny had a blast. Back to Swallow Ridge for rum and Cokes by the pool and a quiet dinner.
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New ZealandOut of Sydney on the morning flight to Auckland. Will Owen of Playing Around New Zealand, who would be our tour operator for the whole New Zealand leg of the trip, met us at the airport and got us checked into the Stamford Hotel on the harbor. A two-hour driving tour of the city the next morning: Mount Eden (an inactive volcano with views the length of the harbor), a stop at the stadium where the World Rugby Championships had been held, a stretch along the America's Cup waterfront, and along the beach communities where one resident in five seems to own a boat. In the afternoon, the ferry across to Waiheke Island for the Hop On bus, two wineries (Stonebridge first, Cable Bay second, the second clearly better), and a long conversation at Cable Bay with Lizzie Dunkley, four years into a solo trip around the world. Back into Auckland for the city's 175th birthday weekend, with an English contortionist folded into a glass box on the waterfront. In the morning, off to the Bay of Islands and our first round of New Zealand golf at Kauri Cliffs.
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