Travel blog

Every trip we've shared since 2011—filter by where we went, when we traveled, or what we explored.

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Cape Kidnappers, the Tom Doak design on Julian Robertson's property above the cliffs of Hawke's Bay

January 30, 20154 min read2015

Dateline January 30, 2015, Cape Kidnappers

From 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.

#new-zealand #cape-kidnappers #hawkes-bay

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New Zealand

January 24, 20153 min read2015

Dateline January 24, 2015, Bay of Islands, Swallow Ridge

Out 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.

#new-zealand #bay-of-islands #kerikeri

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New Zealand

January 26, 20153 min read2015

Dateline January 26, 2015, Golf at Kauri Cliffs

A 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.

#new-zealand #kauri-cliffs #kauri-cliffs-golf-club

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