Murupara Golf Course

Murupara sits at the inland edge of the Bay of Plenty, deep in the Rangitaiki Plains where the Whirinaki and Rangitaiki rivers converge and the vast Kaingaroa Forest stretches to the horizon. It's a remote corner of the North Island that most travellers pass through rather than stop in — a working timber town built around the forestry industry, and a community that has held onto its golf club with the kind of quiet tenacity that small-town New Zealand does particularly well.

The course itself reflects its surroundings: unpretentious, honest, and shaped by the flat to gently rolling landscape of the plains rather than dramatic elevation. Expect generous fairways bordered by native plantings and the occasional timber-country backdrop, where the sheer scale of the Kaingaroa — one of the world's largest planted forests — gives the setting an unexpected sense of wilderness. Green fees are typically modest, and the welcome from a small volunteer-run club is genuine.

For visiting golfers, Murupara offers something the resort circuits can't manufacture: a completely authentic slice of provincial New Zealand golf, where the game is played for its own sake and the surroundings do the talking.