Take the fairway to heaven

I grew up in a golfing family - therefore I don't play golf. With this as my mantra, why was I travelling to the end of the earth to stay at Kauri Cliffs, voted the world's Best New Course 2001 by Golf Digest? A four-hour drive from Auckland to New Zealand's far north took me several stops beyond the end of the world, where a subtropical landscape of citrus, avocado and kiwi-fruit orchards gave way to rolling farmland.

At the end of a gravel road, through an entrance so understated as to be almost non-existent, I stopped dead, almost overwhelmed by the wildly beautiful, CinemaScope view.

Green hills tumbled into the middle distance, punctuated by steep gullies and towering, inky trees. Beyond them stretched the Pacific, Technicolor in the midday light. To one side was a scattering of small, hilly islands; to the other, in the distance, rollers swept onto a swath of pinky-gold sand.

It was easy to understand why Kauri Cliffs' owner - former Wall Street hedge-fund guru Julian Robertson - was so captivated when he set eyes on the 4,800-acre cattle-and-sheep station. A self-confessed golf nut, he envisaged developing it as a stand-alone golf course, then, at the insistence of his wife, Josie, added a lodge. It's lucky for nongolfers that she insisted.

The lodge sits easily in the landscape - a majestic, scaled-up version of an early New Zealand settler's villa: grey clapboard with a corrugated iron roof and wraparound verandas; indoors, enormous airy rooms in a soothing mixture of beige, blonde and blue with huge sofas, countrystyle antiques, vast fireplaces and split-log floorboards.

It's all very cosy - in a world class, chic-beach-house kind of way - with a refreshingly unpretentious Kiwi staff. In every room French windows open onto verandas and, beyond, the immaculate emerald of the golf course ... and that view.

The path to my suite, set in one of eight simple board-and-batten cottages, wound through prim-eval-looking trees with evocative names - tanekaha, nikau, and the kauri, after which the property is named. Here I found more refined rusticity: a huge main room with a fireplace, private veranda and magnificent bathroom - all flooded with light.

How would I spend my time? I could have left one of the private beaches to sail around the islands or deep-sea fishing (for marlin and kingfish), kayaking around the coastal coves or diving off the Cavalli Islands. I could have opted for "nightlife": hunting possums or wild boar. Instead I took the quieter option. One of the countless walks on the estate led me through dense bush and along a stream to a waterfall, where the peace was absolute, the silence broken only by birdsong.

I had Pink Beach to myself, with a picnic hamper of smoked lamb salad with roasted kumara and Asian dressing; passion fruit crËme br°lÈe with baby kiwi fruit, fabulous local cheeses ... it was deliciously typical of the lodge's "Kiwi-modern" cooking.

Eventually, curiosity won over prejudice: just what is so good about this golf course? Walking the course with young resident pro Aaron Bartram soon made it clear. Rather than the fakery of man-made water hazards and sand traps, the rugged terrain and wind provide the excitement. That, and the view: six of the holes cling dramatically to the 500-foot cliffs. However, with four sets of tees to every hole, it's your choice whether you go for punishment or mere challenge.

Kauri Cliffs' privacy brings other benefits. A busy day here is 40 players on the course. Some days the only other humans are the ground staff (30 in all - so that's why it looks as if it's trimmed with nail scissors) and your only audience the cattle in a nearby field. What's more, such quality is a bargain by world standards: NZ$400 (about £120) for a round and NZ$100 (£30) more with a caddy/pro.

Later, sitting in the spa pool, I remembered Aaron's story about a player who lost 46 balls during a round and came back beaming, saying he'd had the most brilliant day of his golfing life. Gazing across the fairways to the ocean, as the setting sun turned everything to burnished gold, even this non-golfer could understand why.

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