New Zealand is an amazing destination for golfers and offers a number of courses amongst the very best in the world, including Kauri Cliffs, Northland, and Cape Kidnappers Golf Course, Hawke’s Bay.

Many of these elite courses are linked to luxury resort accommodation, but are also open to casual green fee players. The country's other outstanding courses include Carrington Resort [Northland], Formosa Golf Resort [Auckland], Lakes Resort Golf & Country Club [Pauanui], Rotorua Golf Club [Rotorua], Wairakei International Golf Course [Taupo], Clearwater Resort [Christchurch], Terrace Downs [Canterbury], Arrowtown Golf Club [Arrowtown], Jacks Point [Queenstown], and Millbrook Resort [Queenstown].

Cape Kidnappers

The golf course at Cape Kidnappers, designed by legendary golf course architect Tom Doak, is a previous winner of  the Golf Resort of the Year – Rest of the World award (2013) at the International Golf Travel Market, a convention of 600 golf tourism suppliers, 350 buyers and 100 members of the international press who named it the best golf resort in the world outside Europe and North America.

The resort has a history of such prestige: it's previously been rated the world’s best course by Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper and was listed fourth in the world by Golf Magazine, and appears regularly on lists of the best courses in the world. It’s hard to disagree with all the plaudits – set on a clifftop, the course is not only amazingly scenic but also highly challenging, with severe bunkers and complex greens.