|
The sun is low when we arrive. The golf course looks like emerald velvet and the colonial style lodge spreads around ancient gum trees. The view of lakes, beach and ocean is unsurpassable. Carrington Resort, a Heritage Hotel, is located at the tip of the Karikari Peninsula, a remote piece of farm and bush that shapes the northern shore of Doubtless Bay in the far north. Carrington has 1,200 hectares of golf course, farmland, wetlands and vineyards just a short drive north of Kerikeri and east of Kaitaia airport. Its remoteness appeals to visitors as do the perfect beaches, its all weather tennis courts, its Olympic standard skeet shooting range and its award winning winery and golf course. Matt Dye, the nephew of legendary course designer Peter Dye, designed the 18 hole championship golf course, complete with rolling hills, vales and natural water hazards. But Carrington is not an easy course to score well on. The views are terrific, and distracting, and the golf is challenging because the fairways are long, narrow and steep. The golf at Carrington is fine but if truth be told probably as many people stay and play because of the winery. This is New Zealand‘s northernmost winery and it is planted in Chardonnay, Viognier, Syrah, Merlot, Malbec and Pinotage grapes. Karl Coombes, resident wine maker, talks us through six full bodied, distinctive wines, many of which have galloped to the top already and won medals. The winery‘s cafe, with its fine food and stunning outlook, has become a popular weekend lunch spot for not only hotel guests and golfers, but locals too. For overnight guests, Carrington Resort has both lodge rooms and villas. Scottish chef, Scott Fraser, presides over the resort‘s fine dining restaurant and he raves about the fresh produce sourced locally: beef from the Carrington farm, eels from the wetlands, fish from the ocean and fruit, vegetables and cheeses from Kerikeri. Carrington‘s skeet shooting area is of Olympic standard and Grant Shaw, gun master, is a retired champion. A gun makes a nice change from a club. Warning, skeet shooting is not as easy as it looks. At the other end of New Zealand,just twenty minutes from Queenstownand within sight of Coronet Peak‘s world famous ski field, Millbrook Resort has gone from strength to strength since it opened in the early 1990s. Far from fading with age, this Japanese owned complex for golf and other outdoor pursuits has continued to upgrade, refurbish and rewire in a way that has made its award winning qualities grow better and brighter. The biggest news from Millbrook Resort relates to golf and the splendid new nine holes designed by former European Tour player Greg Turner. The Coronet Nine, as they are called, make Millbrook a 27 hole course that, when its restaurants, choices of accommodation and five star spa are taken into account, mean Millbrook is the best golf resort in the South Island. The full Coronet Nine is still a year away from completion; however, four of the nine holes are being played, as the final four holes of the current 18. Four of the original 18 have been taken out of action pending completion of the project. The Coronet Nine includes a $500 million residential development (properties selling now) that complements and even enhances the ruralantique style of the original buildings and grounds. Of course, Millbrook is also more seductive than ever because all of Central Otago has lifted its game in recent years: much of its new sophistication is driven by the success of the wine industry, especially Pinot Noir from the Gibbston Valley. The Spa at Millbrook, as it is formally known, is located in a rustic building separated from the buzz of the pro shop and dining areas by a footbridge over a gently flowing steam. Visitors are advised to look into one of the package offers that include a spa treatment or two: note, the treatments are designed as much for men as for women. Five star accommodation in one of the villas, suites or cottages is nicely complemented by fine dining at The Millhouse. The Clubhouse is perfect for breakfast and lunch while the proverbial 19th hole is here called, somewhat optimistically, the Hole in One Bar. Millbrook Resort is as good a launching pad as there is to Queenstown, the hub of adventure tourism, and with winter coming on strong it‘s one place where guests can ski like crazy all morning and knock off 18 holes in the afternoon, leaving the evening for the restaurant, spa and Hole in One Bar. www.heritagehotels.co.nz/carringtonresort. www.millbrook.co.nz | 
