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| That Side of Paradise | ||
| A golf and wine adventure through New Zealand and Australia. | ||
| BY DALE LEATHERMAN * PHOTOGRAPHS BY DONNELLE OXLEY | ||
From an American’s point of view, Aussies and Kiwis are quirky—but delightfully so. We share a common language, sort of. Fries are called chips and potato chips are crisps. Underwear is knickers, a chicken is a chook, trash is rubbish, and a flashlight is a torch. Thankfully, wine is wine and golf is golf—and the rest sorts itself out, mate.
NEW ZEALAND New Zealanders take their nickname, Kiwi, from their national icon, a nearsighted bird that has tiny stubs where its wings were eons ago. It’s loveable, but the shy, flightless kiwi is a strange symbol for a country that pioneered the practice of jumping off high places with only a rubber band around your ankles to spare you from sudden death. In fact, almost every radical adventure sport practiced today originated in New Zealand. Kiwis don’t seem to have a death wish. In fact, they enjoy life more than any other people I’ve ever met. Perhaps that’s because the country has the cleanest air in the world, no poisonous critters, and produces some of the world’s finest wines, along with pretty terrific beef, lamb, venison, prawns, oysters, and clams. And the golf . . . well, in that respect there are lots of reasons to double-check the bungee and live to play another day. New Zealand is second only to Scotland in courses per capita. Auckland
Deciding we did not have the time to spare (the fall takes about 16 seconds), we took a ferry across Auckland’s scenic harbor to Waiheke Island, an idyllic place reminiscent of Tuscany. More than 30 small vineyards march in tidy rows across the hills alongside olive groves and pastures where horses, cattle, and sheep graze. The island has made its mark internationally with cabernet sauvignon, Bordeaux, merlot, cabernet blanc, chardonnay, and shiraz. We sampled delicious wines at several vineyards, including Mudbrick and Te Whau (Maori for “bliss”). During our first tasting I was aghast when the vintner opened a bottle with a twist-off cap. Was he testing us with Ripple? Sacre bleu, the French would say. Faced with dwindling supplies of good cork, winemakers in New Zealand and Australia have banished the problem of cork taint, ignoring plastic corks and going straight to metal twist tops. No worries, they say, the rest of the world will catch on. Auckland’s leading international golf venue is the Gulf Harbour Country Club, a Robert Trent Jones Jr. design. It has some tough, scenic holes, especially on the back nine. The 16th has been compared to the eighth at Pebble Beach or the 17th at Cypress Point. The dogleg par four crosses a ravine and flirts with ocean cliffs along its right side. Going for the green risks a flight over water. Bay of Islands From Auckland, we drove south to Kauri Cliffs, a David Harman design that leapt into the world’s top 100 before the paint was dry on the tee markers. We arrived after dark at the Lodge at Kauri Cliffs and followed a softly lighted path through the woods to our cottage. The door opened onto a suite (one of 16 on property) brimming with warmth and comfort, with deep lounge chairs before a crackling fire.
The golf course occupies nearly 800 acres of hilly woods and fields and Jurassic Park-style gullies from which no ball escapes. Fifteen holes overlook the Bay of Islands, often from cliffs that drop hundreds of feet to the sea. The view (especially from the cliffside 15th tee) sweeps across miles of ocean, Norfolk pine copses, and meadows showing no sign of human habitation. Wind buffets the wide fairways and large, sculpted greens. There are ocean holes on both nines, but holes 13 through 17 literally take your breath away, not only with the views but with the challenges they present. The 6,000-acre resort is owned by Julian Robertson, an American hedge-fund legend who’s also the man behind Cape Kidnappers, another world-renowned New Zealand course. Karikari Peninsula Further north, in the warm area of New Zealand closest to the equator, we found the 3,500-acre Carrington Farms, which encompasses the Karikari Vineyard & Winery, an Angus farm, an eco-lodge, and a golf club. The peninsula is narrow here, and the estate is home to 900 acres of restored wetlands teeming with wildlife and bordered by long, deserted beaches. The Matt Dye-designed golf course follows gentle hills sloping down to the Pacific. The resort’s Michelin Star-trained chef wowed us with local fare—fresh oysters, mussel chowder, and succulent Angus steaks, served with fine estate wines. Rotorua The next day we drove seven hours south to Rotorua. The earth around us breathed steam as if a family of dragons lived underground, and there were boiling mud pools and geysers interspersed with lakes so clear we could spot big trout deep below. That evening we were treated to entertainment and a traditional hangi (earth oven meal) by members of the Tamaki Maori Village. The region is the heart of the Maori culture, as well as one of the world’s best places for fishing and other outdoor pursuits. Rotorua’s Wairakei International Golf Course is one of the country’s finest parkland layouts. Built in 1970, the track is long (7,033 yards) and studded with 108 bunkers, but it’s a beauty—well-groomed, with huge trees, a meandering stream, banks of flowers, and hundreds of colorful birds. A “don’t miss” course, it’s on the route between Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers. Outside of Rotorua, we drove deep into a 2,500-acre game preserve to a stone and timber retreat built in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright. After crossing over a trout stream that cuts across the entrance, we entered a great room with 35-foot-high ceilings, a vast fireplace, and trophy animals gazing down from the walls. Treetops Lodge is the dream of entrepreneur John Sax, whose passion is restoring and protecting New Zealand’s natural treasures. Fortunately, he shares his sanctuary with guests from all over the world who are keen on hunting, fishing, riding, hiking, and fine dining. There are four lodge guestrooms and eight villas in the surrounding woods. When I saw the name on my key, I knew fate had brought me here. I, who grew up in Falling Waters, West Virginia, slept that night in the Falling Water room.
Hawke’s Bay Hawke’s Bay, on the North Island’s east coast, is New Zealand’s leading food and wine region, and its dry, Mediterranean-like climate makes it a popular tourist destination. An increasing number of visitors are golfers drawn to Cape Kidnappers, which occupies a site so spectacular that even the architect, Tom Doak, vows there is no other golf course like it in the world. A long mountain road led to the clubhouse, a simple building of tin and rough-hewn boards much like the ubiquitous sheep stations. The interior was decorated with shearing tools, and a comfortable bar promised sustenance after the battle. And a battle it was. Cape Kidnappers occupies a treeless emerald expanse on bluffs 1,600 feet above Hawke’s Bay. Fingers of land end at the abyss, with greens and tees at their tips. A brutal wind shrieked unchallenged across the open terrain, and the wide fairways shrank every time I struck the ball. It was a grueling round, but an awesome visual experience. In November 2007, the Farm at Cape Kidnappers opened, luxury lodging in the guise of a sheep station. We stayed in the little town of Napier, at the c.1909 County Hotel. The old-fashioned beauty is run by a young couple who know everyone in town. In fact, the entire town seems to congregate in the hotel’s Churchill Bar, a rollicking place with Sir Winston’s quotes painted freehand on the walls. Outside of Napier, vineyards stretch as far as the eye can see, and we stopped to picnic at Morton Vineyards and sample some of the sublime pinot noirs and sauvignon blancs exported to the U.S.
AUSTRALIA Americans often lump New Zealand and Australia together, even though they are 1,000 miles apart. Both countries are peopled by friendly folk, but we quickly learned they dislike being named in the same breath and are fiercely competitive in the things that count—sports, wine, food, and the wow factor of their countries. We flew into the capital of South Australia, Adelaide, which The New Yorker magazine dubbed “possibly the last well-planned and contented metropolis on earth.” No doubt about it, the living is good, with more restaurants per capita than any other Australian city. Seventy percent of the nation’s wine exports originate here. The Royal Adelaide Golf Club is a century-old Alister MacKenzie gem that has hosted nine Australian Opens and is ranked fifth in the country. The architect said it best: “No seaside course I have seen possesses such magnificent sand craters as those at Adelaide.” Royal Adelaide is a private course but Golf Wine Travel guests (see sidebar page 88) have playing privileges. It’s a walking-only course, and we found ourselves tramping a long gauntlet of grassy mounds and sprawling bunkers, with lots of blind shots culminating in sculpted greens that ran true and fast.
We stayed in the Bishop’s Garden, a lovely 1940s mansion that’s one of the unique B&Bs in the North Adelaide Heritage Group. Another of the properties is a converted firehouse complete with an antique fire truck and a fireman’s pole. North of Adelaide lies the famous Barossa Valley, Australia’s best-known winemaking region. Settled by German-speaking immigrants in the 1830s, the region is the source of fine ethnic foods and beer as well as wines. At the Jacob’s Creek Vineyard, we lunched on fork-tender steaks and other local produce, then spent a pleasant afternoon tasting wines at “cellar doors” in vineyards such as Peter Lehmann, Rockford, and Grant Burge. Indian Pacific to Sydney At the Adelaide train station we boarded the Indian Pacific for a 24-hour trip through the Outback to Sydney, one of the world’s greatest rail journeys. The Gold Kangaroo Service entitled us to meals in a private dining car and cozy sleeper cabins with picture windows. Outside, kangaroos, emus, and wallabies scattered as the train rumbled through the barren landscape. One of stops was the mining town of Broken Hill, where A Town Like Alice and Mad Max 2 were filmed. In Sydney we checked into the 34-story harbor-view Four Seasons (the city’s best hotel, according to many), and spent the day exploring the Taronga Zoo, the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, and The Rocks, a lively shopping and dining area on the water. Near the city is the New South Wales Golf Club, Sydney’s only course in the world’s top 100 (it averages 50th), and my favorite Aussie track. A MacKenzie design, NSW is a heavily bunkered, links-style layout on high, rounded hills along the Pacific, with frequent ocean views and a number of water encounters. One of these is the par-three sixth hole, which tees off from a rock outcropping reached by a bridge across a teeming inlet. The green lies across the water, on the edge of a bluff.
Melbourne We caught a flight from Sydney to Melbourne, a city with a vibrant arts, dining, shopping, entertainment, and sports scene. Our hotel was the posh, historic Langham, overlooking the city skyline and the Yarra River. One evening we dined aboard the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant, enjoying a three-course silver service meal in Pullman splendor as the 1927 tram trundled through the city.
Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula is a popular tourist destination with resorts, wineries, golf courses, restaurants, art galleries, and natural attractions. A popular stop is Montalto, a 23-acre estate with a vineyard, 1,500 olive trees, wetland trails, and gardens that grow produce for the restaurant. At dusk, we reached Phillip Island Nature Park, where the Penguin Parade is the country’s third most popular attraction, drawing a half-million visitors annually. Every evening the adorable, foot-tall fairy penguins surf into shore at Summerland Beach and waddle up to their burrows, calling loudly to their waiting young. The next morning, as we settled into our comfortable business class seats (60-degree recline, large foot rests) aboard Air New Zealand, I wore a penguin pin on one lapel and a kiwi on the other. I’ll never speak of the two countries as if they are synonymous again—nor can I choose a favorite. For more on Melbourne, visit www.executivetraveler.net/melbournesidebar Golf Wine Travel If You Go Air New Zealand — www.airnewzealand.com New Zealand Australia Photo Captions:
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We sampled some fine kiwi wines on the 12-hour Air New Zealand flight from Los Angeles to Auckland and were still lightheaded when we checked the view from our 20th-floor room in the downtown Sky City Grand Hotel. Across the street the Kiwis had built the Sky Tower, the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere, for one reason—to jump off it. Clipped to a cable, you step off and freefall 630 feet, decelerating just before reaching the ground. 
In the rustic-chicly appointed main building, we dined on fresh local seafood and lamb prepared by a masterful chef. The lodge has a rugged, masculine atmosphere, with fireplaces, big leather chairs, and Maori art, but there’s a softer side to the resort—a sumptuous spa with a 100-foot indoor lap pool, and several programs geared to women. 
GWT also arranged a post-round “shrimp on the barbie” meal prepared by Andrew Fielke, an award-winning chef who left London’s famous Savoy Hotel to return to his homeland in the 1980s. He has since introduced the world to Australian native cuisine, using “wild foods” in creative dishes. Andrew threw some shrimp on the clubhouse barbie, along with oysters, clams, scallops, prawns, kangaroo, emu, kingfish, and lamb. It was an exceptional meal, accompanied by equally exceptional local wines. 
The Royal Melbourne Golf Club is located in the “Sand Belt” near other famous clubs. MacKenzie designed the West Course and influenced the Alex Russell-designed East Course. Tournaments are usually played on a composite of the two, which is ranked sixth in the world. The wind was light during our round—a stroke of luck, because the par fours are long, and the hard, fast, couch grass fairways shed balls into massive bunkers. Sticking a ball on the slick, undulating greens demanded a soft touch. 
Gulf Harbour Country Club — 
