Omakau

It was still very hot when we arrived at the Omakau golf course that afternoon but a strong breeze had come up which of course was both a help and a hindrance as we played but on a positive note helped to keep our temperatures down.

Rock and roll to the hole, please!

Omakau is a nine hole course and there can be a huge variation in the condition of these courses mainly because of decreasing membership numbers and loss of affordability to pay for green keepers. But

Very varied holes. 

Omakau is just the best nine hole course we can remember playing on - just fabulous with a good layout and an interesting variance of fairways, not flat but no steep climbs, an unseen gully, 2 clean ponds, some bunkers, conifers and tussock with some piles of schist to send your ball in any direction. It was in great, almost immaculate condition with good fairways and greens which need lots of irrigating in this hot dry weather.

Course was greener than it looks here.

As you can tell we really loved playing this course which is so very reasonably priced at $15 for 18 holes. Half the price and at least twice as good as other nine hole courses we have played recently.

Like Clyde this is one of the few courses in NZ that we haven't been able to stay overnight - I think it is a bylaw of the area - so we spent the night in the free parking area just over the bridge from town, down by the stream, not arriving there until about 7.00pm. It's a huge area, some of it being open, but with lots of crannies in and around the trees for overnighting. We had stayed there for 2 nights 6 years ago and there were several other vans staying at that time as well but last night we were the only ones there. However we felt quite safe and were far enough away from the light traffic to not be disturbed. Len checked the stream out for fish but couldn't see any to make him optimistic enough to get the spinner out!