12 Days, 2 Countries, and 11 Courses
Day 1 – Kauri Cliffs
Upon arrival in Auckland airport, you’ll have a nine seat chartered plane waiting to whisk you away to Kerikeri airport, and from there, onto Kauri Cliffs. After checking your luggage, taking a quick shower, you’re off to the Kauri Cliffs course, conveniently located right beside your hotel. What better way to shake off jetlag than a round of golf in the 70th ranked course in the world?
**************************
Your Arrival Hotel:
The Lodge at Kauri Cliffs
Matauri Bay, New Zealand
Kauri Cliffs is located at the northern edge of New Zealand’s North Island, perched on a cliffside overlooking the Pacific and flanked by four thousand acres of rolling hilly farmland. Though it is perhaps best known for its world-class golf course, the resort’s strengths are its remoteness and its grand elegance, both of which appeal to golfers and abstainers alike.
Owner Julian Robertson, once a successful Wall Street financier, discovered this property (then a cattle ranch) during his novel-writing sabbatical during the 80s. The beautiful lodge – rated by Conde Nast’s Gold List 2012 as one of the world’s best places to stay – is built in a grand colonial style. A range of gorgeous living and dining rooms await you, many opening onto covered verandas providing options for alfresco dining next to outdoor fireplaces taking in the mesmerising views. Eleven outlying cottages, each with two guest suites, provide the spacious accommodation at this Relais & Chateaux hideaway.
The Course:
Kauri Cliffs was designed and built by American architect David Harman. The par 72 championship golf course measures 7,119 yards / 6,510 metres and offers five sets of tees to challenge every skill level. Fifteen holes view the Pacific Ocean, six of which are played alongside cliffs which plunge to the sea. The beautiful inland holes wind through marsh, forest and farmland.
The golf course is the creation of owner Julian Robertson, once a successful Wall Street financier, who discovered this property (then a cattle ranch) during his novel-writing sabbatical during the Eighties. He returned after the dotcom Nineties irreparably damaged his flagship hedge fund, and though the Great American Novel may have eluded him, the Great Antipodean golf course has become a reality. This is due equally to the natural surroundings and to the efforts of designer David Harman, who has built courses for Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, and whose light touch on this marvellous course avoids the grand gestures of some gimmicky courses, instead letting the spectacular landscape speak for itself. This outstanding course is sure to set the tone for the rest of your trip.
Course Fast Facts:
Yards: 7,119
Year Opened: 2000
Designer(s): David Harman
Day 2 – Tara Iti Golf Club
This morning, you have the option to play one last round before checking out of the Lodge and taking a private vehicle transfer to Tara Iti (approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes). Tara Iti Golf Club, the premier private golf club in New Zealand. The location was mainly selected for the world class golf, but the surrounding grounds, clubhouse, fitness centre and beach club are breathtaking as well.
Leisure activities at Tara Iti range from relaxation with massages to a myriad of watersports and fitness excursions. The Club offers many activities including:
- Massage, Beauty Treatments
- Yoga, Hiking, Biking, Beach Fishing
- Stand up Paddle Boarding, Kayaking, Quad Skiing, Surfing
- Boat rides on “The Caddy”
- Sea Plane Scenic Flight
- Painting, Cooking Classes, Garden Tours
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Your Accommodation:
Tara Iti, situation hundreds of kilometres north of Auckland, on the coast near Mangawhai, is New Zealand’s premier private golf club. Designed by Tom Doak, by the time it opened in 2015, the course has already been named New Zealand’s best by Australian Golf Digest, and has vaulted into Golf Magazine’s influential World Top-100, awarded with #27 in the 2020-21 rankings.
The club gas a philosophy of taking golf back to a simple, natural experience. The course offers consistent views of the sea, including the several islands that lie just off of the coast. The course aesthetic and environment is quite, owing to its lack of trees, water hazards and formal bunkers. Instead, get comfortable with fescue and an abundance of seemingly embedded sandy areas. In terms of facilities, Tara Iti has a minimalist, but very elegant club house, as well as fantastic near-course accommodations, which offer plenty of other fantastic non-golf activities and amenities. Kick back and enjoy it.
Course Fast Facts:
Yards: 6,840
Year Founded: 2015
Designer(s): Tom Doak
Day 3 – Cape Kidnappers
After a good night’s rest, you’ll be taken back to Kerikeri airport on a private transfer, where you’ll take a chartered plane to Napier. You’ll have an afternoon tee off at Cape Kidnappers, the #36 course in the world.
You’ll spend the night in The Farm, a wonderful lodge at Cape Kidnappers.
The Course:
Designed by legendary golf architect Tom Doak, the Cape Kidnappers par 71 golf course measures 7,147 yards (6,569 meters) and will challenge golfers of all skill levels. Completed in 2004, our spectacular New Zealand golf course has been hailed as one of the great modern marvels in golf. Built on a ridge-and-valley landscape and with stunning sea views, Cape Kidnappers Golf Course plays high above the ocean atop dramatic cliffs.
With cliff-edge fairways perched 140 metres above sea level and with surface that remains firm and fast, this course offers holes unlike anything you find elsewhere in the world. While every hole has a spectacular view of the Bay, some play cautiously alongside deep ravines as others intimidate golfers with deep cliff top bunkers and sheer drops off the very edge of the earth. The golf complex includes a world-class practice range, putting and chipping greens, a well-stocked golf shop, club house and ladies’ and mens’ locker rooms.
Course Fast Facts:
Yards: 7,119
Year Founded: 2004
Designer(s): Tom Doak
**************************
Your Hotel:
The Farm
Hawkes Bay, New Zealand
Where else but in New Zealand would you actively seek out a working sheep ranch for a bit of rural high luxury? This is lodge country, where plush interiors and rugged exteriors go hand in glove. And this particular sheep ranch, the Farm at Cape Kidnappers, lies not on some dull green hillside but on the headlands overlooking Hawke’s Bay, on the North Island of New Zealand — a stunning setting in a country that’s not short on stunning settings.
The lodge itself isn’t hard on the eyes either — the building is a peculiarly modern sort of rustic, and the interiors are elegant, understated, clearly built at least as much for comfort as for good looks. They’re all suites, and they all have sweeping panoramic views up and down the coast, plus a full complement of modern and classic conveniences — flatscreens, iPod docks, luxury bathrooms, fireplaces.
In keeping with the subgenre of NZ lodge hospitality, you can expect a very upscale dining experience. The sourcing is local, with produce literally from the backyard when possible, but the dishes are refined — gentlemen, pack a jacket.
Day 4 – New Zealand -> Australia & Kingston Heath
Today is a big day, but time is your friend.
You will depart early for the Napier airport, where you will be in the same 9 seater charter plane taking you to Auckland in time for a 8:20am flight to Melbourne.
After a 4 hour commercial flight, you will arrive in Melbourne at 10:20am.
You will be met at the airport and taken to your hotel, the Crown Towers to drop off your bags and then carry on to Kingston Heath for an afternoon round.
The Alister MacKenzie course is on the short side, but a stern test. You’ll quickly find out why it’s so highly ranked in the world at #27.
**************************
Your Hotel:
Crown Towers
Southbank, Melbourne, Australia
Rising above Melbourne’s vibrant Southbank precinct, Crown Towers offers spacious luxury rooms with views of the city or Port Phillip Bay. Each room features original artworks and marble bathrooms. The old girl is looking more glamorous than ever and thanks to a rejuvenation of the lobby, rooms, suites and club lounge, the hotel is nothing short of Melbourne’s finest.
Attached to the lobby is the Waiting Room, a bar created by Neil Perry’s Rockpool Group that serves up a range of classic and house-crafted, delicious cocktails, like a Pina Colada with homemade coconut-infused Jamaican rum, or a Sherry Cobbler with lemon and pineapple syrup made in the Rockpool kitchen out the back. The bartenders are happy to make suggestions and they don’t disappoint when charged with the task of shaking up a Hemingway Daiquiri and an Aviation.
The Course:
Before Kingston Heath, Melbourne businessman Stanley Dutton Green led a search to acquire land for a championship golf course. Bringing members from the Elsternwick Golf Club, Green located a site that featured a great deal of interesting natural features amongst a gently undulating terrain with sandy soil. It was ideal.
The course opened for play in 1925, after being designed by Australian golfer and course designer Daan Soutar and consulted on by Dr Alister MacKenzie. At the time it opened, it was the longest course ever built in Australia as a par-82 measuring about 6,780 yards.
Nowadays, as a slightly longer par-72 course, the course has become known as one of Australia’s best and become a relatively frequent tournament host, including holding the 2009 Australian Masters, won by Tiger Woods. Of the course, Tiger said after the tournament “All the guys have raved about this golf course and I understand why. I really enjoy playing on sandbelt courses because it brings back shot-making and we don’t see enough of that.”
Course Fast Facts:
Yards: 6,947
Year Founded: 1925
Designer(s): Dan Soutar
Day 5 – Royal Melbourne
After all that travel, it’s time to take it easy. The Royal Melbourne is located an easy 25 minutes from the Crown Towers hotel. Play either the East or the West course today, and then take the afternoon to relax at your hotel or to explore Melbourne.
The Course:
The Royal Melbourne Golf Club was founded in 1891 and has been host to numerous national and international tournaments. The club, which has among of the best 1-2 punch of courses in the world, equally has a great reputation of providing a friendly, welcoming and inclusive experience.
Renowned Scottish architect Dr Alister MacKenzie was commissioned to design a course for the new Royal Melbourne site. When he arrived by ship in October 1926 he was delighted with the rolling, sandy terrain that grew wonderful turf and was easy to work with horse-drawn equipment.
Before starting work on the West Course design, MacKenzie asked for a listing of all member’s ages and handicaps, determined to make his course enjoyable for golfers of any ability. MacKenzie produced a masterpiece in the West Course during the short weeks he spent in Melbourne.
He then made club member and 1924 Australian Open champion Alex Russell his business partner. Subsequently, it was Russell who designed the East Course that opened in 1931.
Since the 1930s, Royal Melbourne has been a preferred venue for some big tournaments, including the Australian Open, the World Cup, Bicentennial Classic and The Presidents Cup.
Course Fast Facts (West):
Yards: 6,645
Year Founded: 1926
Designer(s): Alister Mackenzie and Alex Russel
Course Fast Facts (East):
Yards: 6,579
Year Founded: 1931
Designer(s): Alister Mackenzie, Alex Russel and Mick Morcomb
Day 6 – Royal Melbourne
Today you’ll play either the East course or the West course, depending on what you played the previous day. The rest of the day is yours again, with a plethora of options from relaxation to exploration.
Day 7 – Royal Adelaide
Today, it’s off to Adelaide on one of the commercial flights that lead practically every hour.
You’ll be met at the airport and taken to the InterContinental to check-in. After a brief respite, it’s time to play a round at the Royal Adelaide (#85 on your scorecard). For dinner, you’ll be booked at the famous Magill Estate.
The Course:
For a course so famous and highly rated the first impression of Royal Adelaide is usually one of bemusement. How could such a seemingly flat piece of ground with a railway line running right past the clubhouse as well as the first tee, second green and third tee accommodate a course of such high reputation?
Like many of Australia’s best classics, the course received its most notable overhaul when Dr Alister MacKenzie made a flying visit to Adelaide in 1926 after designing Royal Melbourne West. Because MacKenzie was only in town for a few short days he worked fast, preparing a report that converted many of the penal fairway bunkers into undulating ground and reconfigured the eighteen holes to eliminate dangerous rail crossings. He also insisted on making full use of the site’s natural features by designing holes over and around the enormous dunes.
Royal Adelaide is an offbeat and one-of-a-kind. Though it has changed substantially since its inception, the club has done a fantastic job at retaining the fundamental character and charm that has always made it such an attractive course. It may not be Australasia’s best track, but with a core of outstanding holes and an unmistakably adventurous streak, to many this is its most enjoyable.
Course Fast Facts:
Yards: 6,579
Year Founded: 1892
Designer(s): H.L. Rymill, C.L. Gardner and Dr Alister MacKenzie
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Your Hotel:
InterContinental Adelaide
Adelaide, Australia
InterContinental Adelaide provides city centre accommodation and is located conveniently beside the banks of the River Torrens. A quick walk from the hotel door will lead you into the cultural area of North Terrace, home to many attractions including the Parliament House, botanical gardens, the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Museum. It’s even less than five minutes to Rundle Mall shopping. Get a real sense of your amazing surroundings as you gaze across the truly breathtaking view of our beautiful city from your luxurious guest room suite.
Enjoy fine meals, made with locally sourced ingredients, at the excellent Riverside Restaurant. Or, if you’re in the mood for something a little more adventurous, try Shiki, the hotel’s Japanese restaurant. Chef du Cuisine Kenny Trinh and his team create authentic, and delicious, dishes, such as sushi, sashimi, tempura, and teppanyaki.
Situated at the spiritual home of Penfolds, the restaurant is located just 8km from the city of Adelaide, approximately a 15 minute journey by car and situated adjacent to the Magill Estate Vineyard, Winery & Cellars. Led by co-Head Chefs, Scott Huggins and Emma McCaskill the restaurant combines modern architectural style with the natural attributes of its Adelaide foothills location & historic surrounds and delivers a contemporary and comfortable fine dining atmosphere. Contemporary food, an extensive collection of Penfolds wines, exemplary service and stunning views completes one of Australia’s finest food and wine experiences.
Enjoy a 7 course tasting menu, with optional wine pairing (for an additional fee). Afterwards, go on a twilight tour of the vineyards and see the famous Penfold Magill Estate with a knowledgeable Penfolds Ambassador.
Day 8 – Cape Wickham
Today, you bid farewell to Adelaide and hop onto a commercial flight back to Melbourne, and from there onto a chartered flight for the 2 hour 15 minute journey to Kings Island, where you’ll play at the newly opened Cape Wickham Golf Club.
After your 18 holes, it’s off onto another chartered flight to Tasmania. Specifically, to the Barnbougle private airstrip. Tonight you’ll be staying at the Lost Farm Lodge at Barnbougle.
The Course:
Never heard of King Island? You’re not alone. Located just off the coast of Tasmania, the island has a population around 2,000, and is not the first place you’d think to see a world-class golf course. That said, that is exactly what you’ll find.
Cape Wickham Golf Course on Tasmania’s King Island is a golf course 
photographer’s dream – there is a view of the ocean from almost every hole. Along the Bass Strait, the course is adjacent to the Cape Wickham lighthouse. With help from Australian golf writer, Dairus Oliver, the Mike DeVries designed course is routed through the natural dunes along the rugged coast line.
Although the course has only been open since late 2015, the course is already ranked #60 on the most recent Golf Magazine World Top-100. More than just incredible, breathtaking beauty, this course has already shown to challenge and delight golfers.
As the Scottish Open Championship winner David Brown once said, “I have played at a lot of golf courses in Australia and overseas. Cape Wickham is an incomparable golfing experience. It is by a wide margin the best golf course I have ever had the privilege to play.”
Course Fast Facts:
Yards: 6,726
Year Founded: 2015
Designer(s): Mike DeVries
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Your Hotel:
Lost Farm Lodge
Bridport, Australia
Lost Farm Lodge provides a stylish accommodation option for those looking to wake up right on course, with each suite only a short stroll to the Lodge Restaurant, Spa, Clubhouse and first tee. With a choice of two rooms–Oceanview or Courseview–the Lost Farm Lodge knows how to treat its guests with dignity and style. Room decor is rustic, with a classic (and classy!) aesthetic. This is an excellent place for a group of golfers to stay and enjoy the conveniently close courses of Barnbougle Dunes and the Lost Farm course.
The Lost Farm Restaurant is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and offers a fine selection of dishes created from locally sourced ingredients, to guarantee freshness. A fine wine list of Australian and Tasmanian wines is available to pair with your meal. All bottles are kept in Lost Farm Restaurant’s climate controlled cellars.
Day 9 – Barnbougle Dunes
After all that travelling around over the past few days, you can take this day to relax: the furthest you’ll have to go to tee off is a five minute walk away. The Barnbougle Dunes, named among the top 40 of the 100 Best, is a Michael Clayton and Tom Doak designed course, and one of the finest in the country.
The Course:
Nineteenth Century Colonial maps of Van Diemans Land, or Tasmania, as it is now known, simply mark a patch of the North Coast east of Pipers River as Low Sandy Shore. The golf course at Barnbougle Dunes runs along this shore, in between a wide complex of dunes that extend behind it. On this pristine coastline, 80kms north of Launceston, architects Tom Doak and Michael Clayton have designed Australia’s best seaside test. It takes some getting to, even for mainland Australians, but its reputation is growing. Presently the bulk of the golfing traffic is either wide-eyed locals more used to up-and-down-the-paddock golf or touring enthusiasts from Hobart, Sydney and Melbourne.
Doak, paired here with Victorian professional and designer Mike Clayton, is a well-travelled and cerebral architect and accents his courses with idiosyncrasies drawn from the world’s classic courses. Elements of these are present here, not in a Las Vegas style pastiche, but in a much more indirect manner in which the course is laid out in sympathy to the twists, humps and folds manifested by the retreat of the sea over thousands of years and the action of the prevailing winds.
Barnbougle Dunes promises to be a memorable round, and is a true bucket-list item for the golf connoisseur.
Course Fast Facts:
Yards: 6,724
Year Opened: 2004
Designer(s): Tom Doak, Mike Clayton
Day 10 – Lost Farm
This morning you’ll be playing the Lost Farm course, opened in 2010 and already on the 100 Best list. You will play all 20 holes coming at a par of 78.
Afterwards, you and your guests are off on a chartered plane to Sydney, where you’ll be staying for the next two nights. A private transfer will take you from the airport to your hotel, the Park Hyatt Sydney, where you can take a little time to check in and relax.
For dinner this evening, you’ll be scheduled for a twilight cruise around Sydney’s iconic harbour. Most cruises will depart at 7:30 pm.
The Course:
Architect Bill Coore isn’t one for hyperbole or self-promotion. So when he gushes about his and Ben Crenshaw’s new Lost Farm course at Barnbougle Dunes “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a property quite like this,” he says it’s worth taking note. Like its six-year-old sibling track, Barnbougle Dunes (a highly-rated Tom Doak and Mike Clayton design), Lost Farm is a seaside routing set among heaving dunes. But that’s where the similarities end.
“I’ve never seen two landforms so completely different on contiguous courses,” Coore says. “The existing course plays like a classic seaside links, with holes nestled down in the dunes, on a small property. Our site is shaped like a square doughnut and has huge perimeter dunes. Inside the doughnut hole is rumpled terrain, like at St. Andrews.”
Within a week of opening, Lost Farm was rated in the top 10 courses in Australia by Golf Australia Magazine, and also entered Golf Magazine’s World Top-100 list, landing at #89 on the most recent ranking. The course is now positioned firmly as one of the icons in Australia’s golfing crown.
Course Fast Facts:
Yards: 6,673
Year Opened: 2010
Designer(s): Coore & Crenshaw
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Your Hotel:
The Park Hyatt Sydney
The Rocks, Australia
Seated smack-dab on one of the most iconic harbour fronts in the world, the Park Hyatt Sydney blends contemporary luxury with sleek, modern styling. Within a 5-minute stroll, you’ll find Circular Quay and you’ll be within a 20-minute walk of other popular places like Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House. Highlights at this romantic hotel include a full-service spa, a restaurant, and an outdoor swimming pool.
Enjoy spectacular harbour front views and dine at local-favourite restaurants The Dining Room and The Living Room. Both of the hotel’s waterfront restaurants, bar, private dining rooms, day spa and recreational facilities have been remodelled to reinforce Park Hyatt Sydney’s position as one of the best hotels in Sydney and Australia.
Day 11 – New South Wales
For your final day of golf, it is nice and relaxing. A simple 25mn transfer down to the beautiful La Perouse peninsula for a morning tee off time at New South Wales Golf Course. New South Wales is the 34th best course in the World and is located on a spectacular piece of property, a beautiful way to finish a memorable trip.
The Course:
On 29 April 1770, Captain Cook dropped anchor just inside the headlands on the southern shore of Botany Bay, part of the traditional lands of the Gweagal people. In seeking to replenish his water supply, he was unable to locate fresh water on the south side of the bay, so he despatched a boat to the northern shores where suitable fresh water was located in what is now known as “Captain Cook’s Waterhole”. This soak is about 150 metres below the 17th tee at New South Wales Golf Club, and is still visible more than 200 years later, particularly after rain.
In 1925 when the golf professional Dan Soutar (Australian Open Champion 1905) looked over the sit in La Perouse, a suburb of Sydney, he gave a favourable report. Eventually Dr. Alister Mackenzie was brought in to design, stating that ‘La Perouse is a magnificent piece of country’. The original Par 73 layout was officially opened in July 1928.
Almost a century later, New South Wales (NSW) is one of the most spectacular courses in Australia. It’s also amongst it’s most difficult. Any sort of wind will add to said difficulty, in exponential fashion. The course is known as a top-5 course in Australia, and a perennial member on the World Top-100 (most recently ranked #46).
Course Fast Facts:
Yards: 6,830
Year Opened: 1928
Designer(s): Alister MacKenzie
Day 12 – Fly Home
After the trip of a lifetime, it’s time to bid Australia farewell and head on home.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
What’s Included
- 11 nights room accommodation
- 1 night at Lodge at Kauri Cliffs
- 1 night at Tara Iti
- 1 night at The Farm
- 3 nights at Crown Towers
- 1 night at InterContinental Adelaide
- 2 nights at Lost Farm Lodge
- 2 nights at Park Hyatt Sydney
- 11 rounds of golf
- Kauri Cliffs
- Tara Iti
- Cape Kidnappers
- Kingston Heath
- Royal Melbourne (East)
- Royal Melbourne (West)
- Royal Adelaide
- Cape Wickham
- Barnbougle Dunes
- Lost Farm
- New South Wales
- Luxury mini-coach for all transfers
- Six chartered flights around New Zealand & Australia
- Services of Travel Impresarios Golf with custom trip booklet
