Kauri Cliffs

Few courses in the world announce themselves quite like Kauri Cliffs. Designed by David Harman and opened in 2000, this private lodge course on the Matauri Bay coastline of Northland has earned a place among the top golf destinations on earth — routinely ranked in the global top 50 and widely considered the finest course in the Southern Hemisphere. Fifteen of its 18 holes carry views of the Pacific Ocean, and 6 play directly along cliffs that drop sharply to the sea. The land itself does most of the talking: rolling farmland gives way to dramatic coastal edges, with the offshore Cavalli Islands sitting on the horizon as a constant, almost theatrical backdrop.

The course plays firm and fast when the Northland wind picks up, which it reliably does, and demands both shot-shaping and course management from the clifftop holes. It is not a place for purely mechanical golf.

Kauri Cliffs sits near Kaeo in the far north of New Zealand, a remote and unhurried corner of the country where the landscape is ancient and the kauri forests give the region its name. The course is part of a luxury lodge property, so most guests are staying on site — a round here is an experience framed by that broader remoteness, not just a tee time.