8 Day "Tee Off" North Island Scenic Golf

ITINERARY

• Highlights: Arrive Auckland, pick up your rental car at the Auckland Airport branch and make your way downtown to enjoy the waterfront and sights of this very cosmopolitan and vibrant city.

• Highlights: Pick up your rental car then travel north to Dargaville and continue to the Waipoua Kauri Forest and see 1000 year old giant Kauri trees. Day ends at Paihia in the beautiful Bay of Islands for the next 2 nights.
  Driving time: Auckland to Paihia 6 hours (via Waipoua Forest).
  Auckland to Paihia driving time: approx. 3 hours, 15 mins
  

• Highlights: A short 5 minute drive to Waitangi Golf Club to play 18 holes. Plan on an 8.30am tee off. Be back in Paihia in time to enjoy a 1.35pm departure on the Hole in the Rock dolphin cruise. Your boxed picnic lunch will be waiting for you on board.

• Highlights: Drive south via Whangarei to the beautiful Hibiscus Coast for a round at Gulf Harbour Country Club (optional). Designed by Robert Trent Jones Jnr and scene of the 1998 World Cup of Golf, this course has magnificent ocean-front holes and spectacular coastal views. If you’re not playing golf, then relax and enjoy the tranquil Bay of Islands before driving south this afternoon. Stay tonight at beautiful Takapuna on the North Shore.
  Paihia to North Shore driving time: approx. 3 hours
  

• Highlights: Travel south via Auckland to the rolling green farmland of the Waikato. Perhaps stop for lunch at Rotorua, one of New Zealand Maori cultural centres. Destination today is the thermal region of Wairakei.
  North Shore to Rotorua driving time: approx. 3 hours, 10 mins
  Rotorua to Wairakei driving time: approx. 1 hour
  

• Highlights: Play a round of golf on the world-renowned Wairakei International Golf Course, set on 450 acres of gentle countryside. We suggest a morning tee off, then spend the afternoon sightseeing around the Lake Taupo area. Perhaps enjoy a luxurious soak in the De Brett Thermal Pools.

• Highlights: Morning at leisure to enjoy the alpine lake environment. Trout fishing is popular here ~ perhaps consider an early start and head out on a fishing charter to catch a few of your own! This afternoon, drive back north through Tokaroa in the heart of the Kaimai-Mamaku Forest Park to Tirau and on to Auckland. Drop off your rental car on arrival.
  Wairakei to Auckland driving time: approx. 3 hours, 30 mins
  

• Highlights: Enjoy time at leisure until you drop off your rental car at Auckland Airport on departure.