Day 34: Treetops

Saturday, Mar 10th

Denny, Greg and I were up early and ready to go golfing by 7 AM. Helga and the kitchen staff had coffee ready and were finishing up the sandwiches and packing our lunch bags for the outing. John, the manager arrived and provided directions to the course as well as keys to one of the four-wheel drive Land Rovers. All we had to do was navigate the back roads and highways and avoid contacting the wrong-side drivers for a one-hour ride to the Kinloch Golf Club.

We did in fact safely arrive at the course; however, not before we had experienced one close encounter with an oncoming red BMW on the narrow curvy dirt access road from the lodge. Nevertheless, all’s well that end’s well. As an aside we met the opposing driver on Sunday, turns out she was a 17-year old lodge staffer.

Anyway back to golf. The club pro, Tom Long, welcomed us to the course and possibly with some influence from either John the manager or owner, ensured that we had everything needed for our 18 holes.  The course proved to be tough; as mentioned it is a Jack Nicklaus design and could be said to be of a links design though we were reminded by Tom that to truly be a links course (as in the British definition) it needed to abut the sea. As opposed to fairways as we know it, this course seemed to be a series of landing zones bounded by rocky crags and fields of uncut grass. Where are the sheep when you need them? Approaches to the greens were never easy, always requiring a lofted shot of some sort. Then there were the greens, described by Denny as slow but challenging; the rolling greens made for serious study for break direction. Needless to say, we experienced all facets of the course; there were a few pars, a few more bogies and other scores I need not mention. All in all, we enjoyed the day and were pleased to have played while in New Zealand.

Back at the Treetops Lodge other activities were underway. The first activity was a jeep ride around the lodge property, some 1,500 acres of hunting, conservation and farm land. On the drive the ladies, Sheila, Chris, Pat and Diane were treated to a series of flora and fauna sightings including elk, water buffalo, deer, llamas, black fungi, any number of fern varieties, as well as birds. Upon return, breakfast was served. Alma and John Sax arrived for breakfast and hung around for a while before heading off to a relative’s wedding. Seems that Jack had some quality time with John during the morning and is probably best able to describe the Sax empire of New Zealand. Later in the morning the hikers, walkers or in NZ terms the trampers departed for a walk to the on property waterfall. Apparently the walk was enjoyable, only once was anyone lost. The balance of the afternoon was spent lunching on the patio and simply relaxing with good WiFi service.

By 4 PM the golfers had returned and together we all prepared for another round of drinks and dinner. During the pre-dinner activity period, the guys undertook a game of 8-Ball on what we would describe as the largest pool table we’ve ever seen. The game was not a quick one as neither the “Elkhart, Indiana” team (that would be Jack and Denny) nor the “Other” team (that would be Greg and me) could get the balls to enter the holes. After about 40 minutes the game finally ended with the “Elkhartians” as the victors. There would not have been time on this trip for a best of three series.

On to dinner we moved. Tonight Helga and Christian announced the entrees including salads for starters followed by pasta and a fish main course. To closeout the meal we were served a fancy dessert. After dinner drinks followed but our stamina was weakening, we were done for the night sometime around 10 PM.