Challenges - what an understatement. Drove straight to the course without being run off the road & booked in to play. Noticed the names of four other Mackay golfers a few groups in front of us. Proof you can't sneak away anywhere to play up without getting caught.
We were looking forward to Balmacewen as the blurb described it as the oldest golf course in the Southern Hemisphere with such notables as Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Bobby Locke, Gene Sarazen & others having graced its fairways. They must have taken a wrong turn or been booked in by their manager after ingesting something halucinatory. What a dogtrack. This would be a great place to do a residential development and put the land to better use. Without a doubt the most dangerous course I have ever played. Now I know where Ned Kelly got the idea for armour.
The first hole is a testing par 5 and all seems to be in order. Then you have to cross a public road - no marked crossings or signs warning traffic of disillusioned golfers crossing by foot or in carts. For those that make it successfully, they are treated to 4 unimaginative holes running parallel to each other with balls raining down on each fairway from the adjoining fairways. The survivors of this test are then directed back across the public road to the 6th tee. It is unfortunate that the directing signage doesn't actually point you in the correct direction and sends you off at a point where there is no egress from the public road to the golf course. Yet another attempt to reduce the visiting golfer numbers after having already extricated the green fees from them.
Having overcome this obstacle I then proceeded to achieve a Bradmanesque prformance on the 6th. I think the life threatening experiences encountered on the previous few holes had taken toll on me. But de fun don't done yet! From here the course turns in to mountain goat country with a lot of holes played over crests of hills. This is very dangerous & on a lot of occasions we were at risk of being taken out by flying cannonballs fired at us by the following group. Probably not their fault as they had no way of knowing where we were once we had crossed the crest.
Cop this though - the 8th hole tees off from an area which is aligned to the 7th green. As I was about to hit off, the woman playing that hole stepped off the back of the green to read her put - straight into the path of where I was meant to drive. Had I hit the ball low I would have flattened her (at least saving her the misery of having to play the rest of the course). We finished the first 9 holes but at this course the 9th hole doesn't come back to the club house so you can't get a stiff drink to calm your nerves. No, they have more challenges planned for you.
Like the tee off next to the practice green where the locals walk in front of you as you are preparing to hit off. By my calculations NZ has zero population growth when you take into account the migration to Bondi, the road toll from their maniac drivers and those killed on the course at Balmacewen.
Best advice I can give about this course - forget it. Life's too short to waste it here. As you can guess Jean won this match comfortably and she trailed 2/3 with one game to go. Course rating 1 out of ten.
But from here the day got much better. Dunedin is situated at the top of Otago Harbour & the Otago Peninsula was the target for this afternoon's travels. A very easy city to find your way around in once you have a map that correlates with the road signs. We drove out of the city and headed out towards Portobello. It was a drive along a rather narrow tightly curving road cut into the hillside on the edge of the bay - this meant you had the sheer face of the hill on one side and the bay on the other. In most places 2 large vehicles would not be able to pass comfortably on a bend. Once again the road was built up to within a couple of feet from the edge but at least the drop off here was only 1 to 2 meters. A tight squeeze on one occasion when we met a bus coming the other way around a blind bend. By the time we moved over, Jean reckoned she couldn't see anything between us and the drop off.
We turned off at Broad Bay and joined the tourist crowd heading toward Larnach Castle. The castle is situated on a very large parcel of land positioned at the top of a hill offering 360 degree views over Dunedin, Otago Harbour, the eastern coastline and pastoral lands. It was built by William Larnach for his first wife with construction begining in 1871 with 200 workmen labouring for three years before the the family moved in. The building phase was finally completed in1887 with the addition of the ballroom - a gift to his daughter for her 21st birthday. The current owners bought the castle in 1967 when it had lapsed into a sad state of disrepair and had been stripped of all original furnishings. Thus began a labour of love to restore it to its former grandeur even to the extent of acquiring the original pieces of furniture.
The castle is built over 4 floors with a spiral stairway leading to the butresses on the roof with sensational views in all directions. For us though the pinnacle was the amazing gardens. The centre piece is the raised lawn incorporating a fountain within a circular drive at the main entrance to the castle. Directly opposite is a pool and pergola positioned in such a way that from the front steps of the castle you look through the pergola, over the pool and across Otago Harbour. Other sections of this magnificient garden included the Flower Garden, South Seas Garden, Patterned Garden, Rainforest Garden, Wishing Well and Cupola etc etc. The Cupola is beautiful with the glass coming from the sailing ship "Zealander" in 1927. As well as tours of the castle you can also stay here in either the lodge or the stables. Well worth the look.
On the way back down the hill you are treated to a continual series of gobsmacking views. We drove on then out to Taiaroa Head at the tip of the peninsula. This is an albatross hatchery with the air filled with gazillions of different species of sea birds.
On the way back from there we stopped into a privately owned sheep grazing property from which the owner had donated a large area of coastal dunes as a sanctuary for the yellow penguin - the second rarest penguin in the world. The operators have done this very well with protected walks leading to constructed hides for viewing of the star attractions. We were fortunate that day as sometimes the adults don't get back from fishing till late at night and all you get to see is the chicks around the waterholes situated throughout the dunes. This day, as the guide said, "Uts ell epinum" (It's all happening). We saw them come in from the surf, lumber up the beach, over the dunes and down to the chicks. After identifying the whereabouts of their chicks, they chase off any that aren't their own, and disgorge their catch of fish into the chicks mouth. It was so interesting that time had again slipped away from us and by the time we drove the bay road back at grand prix pace (ie. the local speed) it was passed 8pm. This was one of Jean's trip highlights as she had always wanted to see penguins.
Decided that we would just try the restaurant over the road from our lodgings & we were shown to a table out on the balcony. Some poor girl had chosen that night to start work so we welcomed her with every obscure question we could muster about the menu as well as seeking translation of her South island accent. Hillarious and taken in the right spirit. People at other tables joined in with us for a chat and we enjoyed the convivial atmosphere with great food. A chat and a glass of port with the owner and we tumbled back over the road to our cot.
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