Despite being separated by 400 miles, Cape Kidnappers and Kauri Cliffs might as well be joined at the proverbial hip when it comes to the rise of New Zealand as one of the world’s most unique and luxurious golf destinations.
Cape Kidnappers to the southeast and Kauri Cliffs to the north of the long and narrow North Island of New Zealand each occupy land that was once sheep ranches. They sit atop oceanfront plateaus, dotted with deep canyons that Mother Nature designed, not golf course architects Tom Doak or David Harmon.
Each Rosewood Hotel resort course, developed by the late American financier Julian Robertson, who passed away two years ago, celebrates a significant anniversary in 2024.
Kauri Cliffs, designed by Harmon, a Jack Nicklaus protégé, turns 25 on Nov. 1, while Cape Kidnappers, designed by the award-winning Doak, is 20 years old this year.
If you’ve searched any online or print information about golf travel to New Zealand, there’s a good bet you’ve seen stunning aerial photography of each layout, universally regarded as top 100 courses in the world.
“Many credit Sand Hills and Bandon Dunes (in the United States) for creating a specific ‘remote links’ category, and I’ll go along with that,” says Ray Geffre, director of golf at Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers. “But I’m convinced Kauri has had similar impact — here in New Zealand without question — but globally as well.
“For starters, if Kauri didn’t hit the World Top 100 in 2003, maybe there is no Cape Kidnappers. But the success of Kauri, then Cape, certainly paved the way for all the boutique, remote, super-upscale golf resorts that have opened here and around the world in the 21st century. In short, Kauri Cliffs proved that folks would travel great distances to experience that standard of luxury, far from the beaten path.”
Harmon certainly piled up some frequent flyer miles during his design work, traveling to New Zealand 42 times from his home in Florida. And Doak made at least a dozen overseas trips to build Cape Kidnappers, an area which was named by captain James Cook, who was the first to define New Zealand’s outline.
“That’s a long way to travel and I’m not doing it unless it’s for something really worthwhile,” Doak says. “They are spectacular and yet they are open to the public. So even though they’re a long way away, the golf magazines started featuring them because you could get on a plane tomorrow and go there if you wanted to.”
Doak met Robertson in 2001 when the developer was on a golf trip to Oregon.
“Things were really just taking off for me at that time and taking off in a big way,” Doak says of his design career. “Pacific Dunes was my 13th golf course and that’s the one that really put me on the map. But it takes some time; it’s not like you’re an overnight success. People have to play it and see for themselves. Mr. Robertson happened to go there and play on like the second day it was opened. He was there to play Bandon Dunes and everyone insisted he play Pacific Dunes, too. And he loved it. So I had a call from him in the fall of 2001 and went to New Zealand in November.”
Doak recalls his plane being delayed as part of airline travel soon after 9/11, so once on the island he took a helicopter ride to the Cape Kidnappers site to meet Robertson, receiving his initial bird’s eye view.
“You could see the fingers of land and you could see how dramatic it was in the valleys,” Doak says. “But that’s not the perspective you get when you’re on the ground as the course kind of gently tilts toward the ocean. But when you’re standing at the edge of a deep valley, it’s pretty incredible.
“And at the same time when you’re standing on the edge of some of the greens you’re like 450 feet above Hawke’s Bay. It’s like Monterey Bay; just a huge bay on the Pacific Ocean. And from that perspective, you’re watching sets and sets of waves come in like ripples on a pond. Just the scale of it is crazy compared to anywhere else in the world.”
Most of Cape Kidnappers’ holes don’t get too close to the sheer cliffs, except for one shot.
“I’m scared of heights, so I was a little afraid to put something right next to the cliffs,” Doak says. “So we stayed back a little bit, but on the left side of the 15th fairway and the back of the 16th tee, if you jumped over the little sheep fence you would fall to your death.”
Meanwhile, Kauri Cliffs features ocean views on 15 of its 18 holes.
“If you think about what these resorts are selling, it is luxury and solitude,” Geffre says. “It’s world-class golf at the edge of the known world, where you play your own game — because no one is watching. You don’t get that sensation anywhere else, even at the finest private clubs.
“Of course, golf enjoys a long tradition of amazing accommodations that stand beside superb courses. But those hotels have traditionally been quite large, often corporate and sometimes impersonal. Kauri’s example is literally a world away from that. We host buddy trips where the eight guys are the only ones on property, for days. That’s a particular sort of luxury vibe, one that didn’t really exist until 1999.”
Much has changed in 25 years. Kauri recently added a trio of four-bedroom residences that cater to golf buddy trips and families on holiday. In the Robertson tradition, all 22 guest suites feature their own distinct, continually updated décor, open fireplaces, walk-in wardrobes and private porches with stunning views.
The best season for golf here is October-April, but it’s not cheap. Green fees for international players in season at Cape Kidnappers costs $450 with the rate at Kauri Cliffs $649. Most golfers fly into Auckland International Airport, which served 16 million passengers in 2023.