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pioneer of perfection
Millbrook, near Queenstown, was New Zealand’s first golf resort. Now, 18 years after it opened, the former farm, steeped in history, remains at the top of its game and welcomes visitors from all over the world. By Chris Parvin.
Even if life was only about first impressions, you could happily turn up at Millbrook without your golf clubs and spend the rest of your days reminiscing about the place.
Just motoring through the Wakatipu Basin’s scenery to the Arrowtown resort has you looking out for Julie Andrews as your eyes climb every chocolate-box mountain and your car fords every glacial stream.
If that isn’t enough, the cruise through Millbrook’s stately sun-dappled avenue of towering 150-year-old oaks and elms, with glimpses of rolling fairways and pristine bunkers will have you humming Vivaldi long before you reach for the stereo.
The fact you can actually play golf here seems like a ridiculously generous portion of icing on an already perfect cake, but then Millbrook was unveiled in the days when “exceeding your expectations” was every company’s buzz-phrase, and this place has never stopped believing.
Since becoming New Zealand’s first golf resort in 1992, Millbrook has pulled off the trick of receiving countless laurels while steadfastly resisting the temptation to make a three-piece-suite out of them and take a seat. Constant improvement and attention to the impeccable detail of ‘doing what it says on the packet’ have seen it inspire huge amounts of international confidence.
While most of the world wallows in recession, Millbrook’s urbane property sales division remains one of the region’s most successful. That’s no mean feat in New Zealand’s most sought-after lifestyle haven where buyers are spoiled by a selection of lakefront, mountainside, city-centre-chic and idyllic rural real estate.
Millbrook’s reputation for uncompromised luxury ensures it remains the blueprint for the country’s fast-growing resort golf industry. Of course, the golf itself isn’t half bad either. Ask anyone, or better still, Bill Clinton. Even with his reputation for finding time in his frantic presidential schedule to indulge in his favourite pursuits, the fact that he managed 27 holes during an 18-hour stay at Millbrook in the late 1990s should tell you just how irresistible the place is. And that was before there were 27 different holes at the resort, something which has now come to fruition.
The new, Greg Turner-designed Coronet Nine has added not only a new set of challenges to Millbrook, but also a whole set of extra outlooks and acres of space to help with that ‘I’ve got the course to myself’ feeling. That’s no surprise when you see the Turner Macpherson Golf Design company motto: A golf course – a reflection of its environment. Like the Wakatipu Basin, the Coronet Nine is challenging, rewarding, lush and dramatic.
It has been designed to complement the original 18, laid out by Kiwi golfing legend Sir Bob Charles. That’s meant retaining the 1963 British Open winner’s take on Millbrook’s former life as a farm, luxuriating in an abundant supply of water for almost 80 years when the entire basin was furnished with a gravity-fed irrigation system starting way up in the mountains.
The system’s hill-straddling pipes have long been part of the Wakatipu scenery, along with generations of farming equipment and gold-mining machinery, so evidence of the pioneers’ efforts to master the country is never far away.
The latest addition to the 200-hectare resort has also added a good way to get to know staff, members and visitors alike.
Should you feel the need to start a lively discussion at the sales office, the pro shop, any of the three restaurants or even the elegant spa, just ask the innocent-sounding question: “So which is the club’s signature hole?”
More than likely you’ll end up with a spirited banter session that takes you round all 27 and makes the scorecard much more familiar than you’d expect for a first visit.
And what you’ll learn is that this course doesn’t have just one signature hole; it’s more of an autograph book really.
So be prepared to thoroughly enjoy mentally thanking yourself for the decision to bring your full set of clubs.
Fairways range from ego-strokingly wide and kindly meadows to a cinched selection that will have you grinding your teeth and contorting your body as you try to will your ball to a safe landing. The grass on them is not only tamed, but positively house-trained across the entire course, so lies come more naturally than a politician’s.
On the flip side, once you decide to use something other than the sweet spot you’ll find a fascinating selection of rough that’ll send ungentlemanly dreams of strimmers and weed-killer through your head.
But the over-riding impression is that this course hasn’t been designed to punish you for simply having an off-day.
The challenge to do well is all there in spades. It is a championship layout after all, most recently hosting February’s Handa New Zealand Senior Masters.
But Millbrook works more on positive reinforcement than employing the golfing equivalent of medieval instruments of torture. Its main defences include rangey holes that send you to the tee with your longest clubs in hand and the will to shoot straight in mind. And while 70 bunkers on the original 18 take turns to wink at you from every angle, the silky Oamaru sand restores your faith you’re about the play the easiest shot in golf.
Canine limbs are well in evidence, so natural ‘power-fades’ might come in useful round the ripple-free surfaces of Millbrook’s numerous waterways, but you’ll equally need to be consistently quick on the draw for the same reason.
Add to that constant variety, elevated tees, generous greens with plenty of graceful borrow to work the grain with and a welcome lack of dead elephants, and the only other thing you have to worry about is the resort’s biggest defence
of all – distraction.
Only neighbouring a nudist colony could take your mind off your game more than the natural spectacle around Millbrook.
The mountains are huge, the snow-caps look painted-on, the ground is fertile, the birdlife soars in search of prey, and the consistently clear weather at 392 metres elevation means you can play just about year-round, so the air smells alternately of rich cut grass in summer and gentle woodsmoke in the colder months.
When you’re packing, make sure you’ve got Vivaldi on the iPod and you’re all set – to arrive at least. The rest is up to you.
at a glance
Getting there: Fly direct to Queenstown from major Australian and New Zealand airports. Millbrook is near Arrowtown in the Southern Lakes, three hours by road from Invercargill, four hours from Dunedin and six hours from Christchurch. All are exceptionally scenic routes.
Accommodation: Ranges from luxury 50sq metre Village Inn rooms to cottages and fairway homes.
Play and Stay: One night in a luxurious Village Inn room with full buffet breakfast, 18 holes and twin-share golf cart from
$NZ299*, double or single. Golfers Escape
package includes two nights luxury accommodation, $100 food and beverage voucher, 18 holes with twin-share golf cart from $NZ389.50*/person, double or twin-share.
*Extra nights at ‘best rate of the day’ regardless of twin or single occupancy incl. GST, room only
Green Fees: 18-holes, $NZ60-165 for casual visitors, incl. cart, balls and tees; 9 holes, $NZ60-95; in-house guests $NZ60-70/day for unlimited golf.
Non-golf activities: On-site – three restaurants, spa, walking and cycling track network begins with 3km trail at Millbrook; off-site – historic Arrowtown, a short walk from Millbrook, has a boutique cinema and excellent dining options. Tramping, fishing, vineyards, skiing, watersports and adventure activities are within a short trip on Millbrook’s shuttle bus to Arrowtown or Queenstown. www.millbrook.co.nz
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