Carrington - North Island - New Zealand

The Carrington Resort is situated within an enormous 3,000-acre property on Northland’s Karikari Peninsula where residents can sample the produce from the on-site vineyard and winery or maybe stroll along a fabulous 2½-mile stretch of white sandy coastline. On the sporting front, Carrington offers a wide range of facilities ranging from swimming pools to tennis courts, Olympic class shooting range to 18-hole championship golf course.

A golfing layout actually existed here prior to a redesign by American Matt Dye, nephew of the legendary Pete Dye, but such was the extent of the architect’s work on the site, Carrington was considered a new course when it opened for play in December 2003. Sadly, Matt died prematurely of cancer five years later but his golfing legacy is still very much in evidence at the resort.

The course is described as “an inland golf course with an Oceanside location” – how refreshing to find a seaside course not promoting itself as a links – and it’s set out on a rolling landscape where water hazards come into play on several occasions, most notably at holes 6 and 7. The two slightly doglegged short par fours at 5 and 17 are feature holes on the scorecard while the monster 625-yard 14th is one of the longest par fives in all of New Zealand.