Kauri Cliffs sits on a former sheep station above Matauri Bay, close to the Bay of Islands’ deep-water game fishing grounds and the charter boats running out of Paihia and Opua. Marlin, tuna and kingfish are the main targets through summer, and pairing a morning round with an afternoon on the water is one of the more popular ways to spend a day in Northland.

Cape Kidnappers sits above Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand’s oldest wine region, where the gravel terraces of the Gimblett Gravels produce some of the country’s best syrah and cabernet blends. A morning on Tom Doak’s cliff-top routing pairs naturally with an afternoon of cellar door visits, with Craggy Range, Te Mata and Elephant Hill among the wineries within easy reach of the course.

Millbrook’s two courses sit in the Wakatipu basin outside Arrowtown, in the same valley as Queenstown’s bungy jumping, jet boating and skydiving operators. The original course, designed by Bob Charles and John Darby, opened in 1992; the newer Coronet course, by Greg Turner and Scott Macpherson, was completed in 2023 and now hosts the New Zealand Open. A round here works well either side of a half-day on the Shotover or Kawarau rivers.

Arikikapakapa, Rotorua’s golf course since 1912, plays through an active geothermal field next to the Whakarewarewa Thermal Reserve and Te Puia, with steam vents, a sulphur mound guarding the 9th and a thermal crater beside the 14th. The pairing writes itself: a round among the thermal features in the morning, then the geysers, Maori cultural performances and hangi at Te Puia in the afternoon.