There are 384 golf courses listed in New Zealand, one of the highest number per capita in the world. Garth and Karen Taylor set off in their motorhome to play every one of them.
It was club day at Parapara, the obscure nine-hole golf course on SH4 between Raetahi and Whanganui. Garth and Karen Taylor had booked to play. They parked their motorhome in the car park and climbed down to shake hands with the five men who comprised the entire membership. Three of them had arrived on a quad bike, one had run several kilometres carrying his clubs as part of his fitness regime, and the president had arrived a little earlier to take orders for the after-match pies. No lady players had graced the Parapara Course for two years and the president had thoughtfully created a lady’s golf card so that Karen could register her score.
“The course was extremely challenging,” says Garth. “It’s on a working farm, and it is not open during lambing. Walking from one of the greens to the next tee was up a very rocky, muddy track and the previous day, the president had bulldozed a better path for us. This averted trundler damage and twisted ankles. On the sixth fairway golfers were required to give way to any top dressing planes coming in to land for a top up.”
The Taylors live in Hamilton but they are not always in residence because ten years ago, they embarked on a personal challenge to play every golf course in New Zealand. In 2004, as Garth was planning his retirement, he bought an old Ford Trader motorhome that had been converted from a police communications vehicle. It was a small four-berth with no internal access to the cab, and limited storage. They bought it to see if they could live together in a confined space.
“That was no problem,” says Karen. “Because we were both addicted to cricket, we started following cricket tests around the country, taking this accommodation with us.” On the way, they began to think about what sport they might play themselves. Golf was an obvious choice. It would provide daily exercise in the fresh air and take them to places they would not otherwise visit.
Garth had a head start as he’d played the game in his youth. He bought Karen a set of clubs for $100 and they hit the fairways. Six year later, they spotted a 2004 Ford Transit six-berth motorhome in Christchurch, and upgraded. “ The transit had a lot more storage. We added our own touches, and now we consider it our second home.”
“With the solar panels we have installed and good sized water and waste tanks aboard we can last up to five days off-grid. It doesn’t have outside storage but we store clubs and trolleys in the Luton. There are launderettes everywhere, so we pack minimal clothing. The rear double bed is kept made up, and we use the kitchen and dining table for meals and socialising.”
To the South
At the same time, Garth bought Karen a set of new Dunlop golf clubs, and the pair set off on a ten-week holiday to the South Island to test them by playing as many courses as they could. Superorganised Karen wrote to the clubs to book and ask permission to stay overnight. “I’m pleased I did,” she says. “We were welcomed at every club, and it was on that South Island trip that we dreamed up our quest to play every course in New Zealand.
The official list is 384 but, because others are privately owned, we think there are quite a few more.” In 2013, the couple joined the Horsham Downs Golf Club in Hamilton, a picturesque nine hole club with fantastic greens adjacent to the Waikato River that gobbles up many stray golf balls. When he’s home, Garth spends 20 hours a week as a volunteer assistant to the greenkeeper.
Registering this as their home club allowed them to apply for official handicaps. Currently, Karen plays off an 18 handicap and Garth off a 30. When I talked to them, the couple hadplayed 120 18-hole courses in the North Island, 55 18-hole golf courses in the South Island and 129 nine-hole courses throughout both islands, each of which they play twice in order to make up 18 holes.
The current tally stands at 304. The couple’s most concentrated golfing spree was in 2021, when they travelled for five months and played 99 golf courses. “I plan our itineraries like a tour guide,” says Karen, “and we mostly stick to them. In 2017, we created our own safari and took four motorhoming friends across Cook Strait to play all the courses in Marlborough, Nelson and the West Coast. That time, we played 29 courses in 49 days.”
Each year Karen and Garth also join the two-week NZMCA Safari in the North Island, which involves around 30 motorhomes or caravans and 40 golfers. They play at nine clubs with a few rest days in between. “It’s a fantastic way to see the country and spend time with other golf addicts,” says Garth. “We also follow the NZ Vets North Island Golf Circuit (NZVGC) that starts in January and runs until December (minus June and July). We’ve also played 17 courses in Australia with Golf Encounters Travel when flights, accommodation and bus travel are organised for us.”
Unique experiences
Back here in New Zealand the pair has contended with a lot of situations in pursuit of their golfing quest. “We’ve shared some small country courses with sheep; seeing a few sheep scattering after I drive down the fairways gives a good indication where a ball has landed!” says Garth. “We’re fond of these courses because the different challenges they present are all part of the fun and it’s great to see the care that volunteers often lavish on them. But every course is unique and whether meticulously manicured or rough and ready, we enjoy them all.”
Karen and Garth both have plenty of stories to tell from their adventures. “Most memorable so far are the Roxburgh Course, where challenging fairways wind between huge rocks of schist; Pio Pio for the club’s country hospitality, and Ringa Ringa Heights on Stewart Island, a sixhole course players repeat three times,” says Karen.
“Most quirky was perhaps Nopera, a nine-hole course tucked under a steep ridge of the Kenepuru Sound, in Marlborough. We parked the motorhome at Te Mahia and caught a water taxi to a point near the club, where we took off our shoes, and waded to shore through the shallow water carrying our golf bags on our backs. Then we walked 700m uphill to the club house to be welcomed by club members and join in the day’s contest. After play, we were given a lift to the jetty, five kilometres away, where the water taxi returned us to Te Mahia. It was fantastic.”
“The course at Ohura in the King Country is also worth mentioning. The fairways were covered in knee-high paspalum, and the sheep had liberally fertilised the greens, but as lawn mowers they had rather fallen down on the job, unfortunately. We have since heard this course has closed.”
Karen and Garth’s top favourites, however, are much more sophisticated. They were captivated by Jack’s Point and Kelvin Heights in Queenstown with the views of the Remarkable Mountains and Lake Wakatipu from the greens and fairways. These two courses are among the most scenic in the world. I asked Karen what they’ll do when there are no more courses to play. “Actually, we haven’t thought that far,” Karen says. We still have heaps of golfing ahead of us.” For the Taylors, motorhome travel is a hit in more ways than one.
