Chateris Bay Golf and Tennis club

Governors Bay sits on the western shore of Lyttelton Harbour, one of the most dramatic stretches of water in the South Island — a drowned volcanic crater ringed by steep Port Hills that drop almost directly into the sea. It's a small, tight-knit community about 20 minutes from central Christchurch, and the kind of place where a local golf and tennis club genuinely serves as the social heart of the area.

Chateris Bay Golf and Tennis Club occupies this spectacular harbour-edge setting, which means the terrain is anything but flat. The Port Hills terrain delivers genuine elevation change and exposed positions where the nor'wester — Canterbury's notorious funnelling wind — can turn a modest layout into a serious examination. Views across the harbour toward the Kaikōura Ranges on a clear day are among the more memorable backdrops you'll find on any New Zealand golf course.

As a community club in a small settlement, this is grass-roots New Zealand golf at its most genuine: unpretentious, sociable, and shaped entirely by its extraordinary natural surroundings rather than by architectural ambition or tournament prestige.