The Hills began as a single hole Sir Michael Hill, the Queenstown jeweller, built beside his own home in the early 2000s. It grew, hole by hole, into a full John Darby-designed championship course on 500 acres of former deer farm in the Wakatipu basin, opening in 2007 to host that year’s New Zealand Open. Large-scale sculptures by Hill’s son Mark sit throughout the routing, including a five-metre bronze weta on the 1st fairway. The course is private, but takes a limited number of visitor bookings each day, which we arrange ahead of time.

Beyond The Blue was founded on the belief that travel should feel personal, not prescribed. Through trusted local relationships and thoughtful planning, we create journeys that reveal the people, places and experiences that define a destination. The result is travel that feels seamless, considered and deeply connected to place, leaving you with stories worth telling long after the journey ends.

Millbrook’s two courses sit in a natural amphitheatre in the Wakatipu basin, surrounded by the Remarkables. The original course, designed by Bob Charles and John Darby, opened in 1992; Greg Turner and Scott Macpherson’s newer Coronet course was completed in 2023 and now hosts the New Zealand Open.

Arrowtown Golf Club traces back to a six-hole course laid out by members in 1911, though the present club was formed in 1935 and its nine holes opened in 1936, built largely by hand with rakes and mowers. A second nine followed in 1970 on land across the road. The course has no sand bunkers at all, instead using schist outcrops, narrow valleys and small, tilted greens to defend itself; holes like Sons of Fortune and Golden Arrow recall the gold-mining claims the fairways were cut from.