Waitangi

Waitangi itself is probably the most significant place in New Zealand in terms of the history of this young country. It is the site of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, an “agreement” between the British Crown and various Māori chiefs about governance, land ownership and rights in the new nation state. The Treaty had both an English and Maori version, which differ somewhat, and this has been the subject of great controversy ever since.

Waitangi Golf Club is literally over the hedge from the Treaty grounds, situated on land purchased in 1932 by the Governor General of New Zealand and his wife, Lord and Lady Bledisloe. They donated it to the people of New Zealand as a ‘place of historic interest and recreational enjoyment for their benefit and use in perpetuity’.

The course enjoys some stunning panoramas, in one direction overlooking the renowned Bay of Islands, with other outlooks over a river estuary, forest and rolling bushland. The layout is one of narrow fairways and small greens, the front nine weaving through bush and lines of trees, with the back nine finding more open country on the cliff tops.

In 2011, the 11th hole was converted from a par four into a long arcing par five, with the green pushed back right to the coastline, nestled against the rocks. Kristine Kerr, who also designed the recently opened Pegasus in Christchurch, oversaw this work.