Lakes Resort

Pauanui sits on the Coromandel Peninsula's western flank, a planned beach resort town that emerged in the 1970s along a long strip of white sand between the Tairua Harbour and the Pacific. The town has always drawn Aucklanders chasing a particular kind of unhurried holiday, and the golf course fits that spirit — a resort layout designed to be enjoyed rather than endured, winding through the canals and waterways that give the development its name.

Water is the defining character here. The course plays through the Lakes Resort residential community, where holiday homes back onto fairways and the canal system comes into play on multiple holes. It rewards straight ball-striking and course management over raw power, and the flat, links-adjacent terrain keeps rounds moving at an easy pace. The surroundings are genuinely scenic — the Coromandel ranges rise to the west, and the coastal light that settles over the Firth of Thames in the late afternoon is hard to replicate.

For visiting golfers, this is holiday golf at its most honest: approachable, social, and set in one of the North Island's most popular summer destinations.