Golf New Zealand’s Tasman golf club support and competitive golf manager Simon Winter reports in from one of New Zealand’s most remote golf courses on its annual club classic’tournament

Small town golf defines the ultimate essence of Kiwi hospitality

Ever heard of somewhere in New Zealand called Nopera?

Caption: A view of the Nopera golf course in the Marlborough Sounds

Don’t worry if you haven’t. It’s about 2-1/2 hours of continually-winding roads west of Picton at the top of the South Island in, literally, the middle of the Marlborough Sounds. While you can drive to Nopera Bay, most people choose to either boat in, helicopter in, or fly in.

Apart from the golf club, there’s not a lot else at Nopera Bay. Okay, to be perfectly honest, apart from a few farms and a smattering of remote homes, the only thing at Nopera Bay is in fact the golf club. In February, the club held its annual Bayleys Nopera Classic tournament -- one of the biggest events on the club’s highly sociable calendar.

The crew at Nopera Golf Club walk a tight rope when it comes to running their course. On one hand, they could always do with visitors to bolster modest club funds, yet simultaneously on the other hand they jealously guard their little-known piece of paradise, with its isolation and beauty as its greatest appeal, along with how easy that makes it to get onto their course virtually whenever they want.

Visitors don’t just stumble across Nopera Golf Club. Really you specifically have to want to go the club as it’s on a road to nowhere, apart from a smattering, and I mean smattering, of remotely isolated homes. In some cases in the Marlborough Sounds, your neighbour is several kilometres down the road, over the hill, or around the next inlet.

It’s this remoteness which is an attraction for those who are fortunate enough to hear about Nopera Golf Club. For example, several weeks before the Bayleys Nopera Classic was played, there were a couple of holidaymakers from Europe who were staying in Blenheim and had earlier played the fancy fairways of Millbrook down in Queenstown as part of their vacation.

The visitors were keen for a different golf experience in the Tasman area and were encouraged by their accommodation hosts to explore the delightful waterfront greens and fairways of Nopera Golf Club for something very, very unique in a Kiwi style and setting.

They paid for a $400 return flight in and out from Blenheim to Kenepuru Sounds where the club is located. The alternative, a drive in from Picton, takes around 2-1/2 hours on a good day. The runway landing strip for small planes is literally a five iron away from the Nopera Golf Club, making it very handy for collecting a hire cart or buggy to carry the gear around the neighbouring course.

The international golfing guests received a freshly caught snapper lunch prepared by Nopera Golf Club president and outstanding salt of the earth host Laurence O’Connell. The green fees for playing Nopera are $20.

However, the visitors didn’t have anything as small as $20, so they handed over the $150 they had in their possession, and said the amazing hospitality from Laurence and the other club members, combined with the experience of playing on such a special course, literally in the middle of nowhere, yet surrounded by stunning natural beauty, was worth far more than $150.

My experience was something similar. I was picked up from Te Mahia jetty, about an hour’s drive through the hills west of Picton, by Nopera supporter and all-round good guy Birnie in his vintage 104-year-old little diesel sailing vessel.

We then took half an hour to cruise across the deep blue waters of Kenepuru Sounds to arrive at Nopera Bay – which is surrounded by pasture and tree covered hills on three sides, and the water on the other.

Arriving on the night before the Bayleys Nopera Classic was played, I enjoyed homemade woodfired pizzas and homebrew beer with club president Laurence O’Connell and a dozen of the club volunteers who had earlier spent many hours grooming and preparing the course ahead of its big tournament.

Caption: Nopera Golf Club president Laurence O’Connell with the homemade pizza.

There were approximately 40 players in the Nopera Classic field, half of whom drove in from up to an hour-and-a-half away, while the other half boated in from across Kenepuru Sound. The weather was great for the front nine, but a little wet on the back nine. The course presented some great challenges - with excellent pin placements and some natural contour, gully, and tree obstacles.

The tournament winner was club stalwart Rebecca Teonea. The inscription on the trophy, which has traditionally always had to be read aloud by the winner, was a humorous reflection of great Kiwiana at its finest: “Nopera’s course you’ve mastered, you dirty bunkering bastard, now take this cup and fill it up, so we can all get plastered.”

Following the day’s event was the customary prize giving with a well-stocked prize and raffle table containing goodies donated by community members around Kenepuru Sound and generous club sponsor Bayleys Marlborough (big shout out to agency owner Glenn Dick and his sales crew who have been long-time supporters of Nopera Golf Club), after which was a very enjoyable Kiwi meal of chicken and ham with an amazing array of beautiful salads was consumed, along with a few more liquid refreshments as you would find in any country golf club around New Zealand.

Ends…

On my trip back across Kenepuru Sound the next day I travelled in Laurence’s aluminium fishing boat, and of course, it would have been remiss of us not to drop a line or two in the water – with Laurence keen to prove that all the banter about the sound’s abundant fish life was a reality.

Sure enough, we bagged a haul of snapper and nine kahawai, enhanced by Laurence dredging up some oysters and mussels en-route back to Te Mahia jetty.

Caption: Another view of the golf course at Nopera in the Marlborough Sounds.

The folk at Nopera Golf Club are some of the friendliest and most down to earth characters you will ever meet in New Zealand. They are the grass roots of golf in New Zealand, and in fact small town New Zealand as a whole.

I can wholeheartedly recommend the experience of playing at this remote little course – where the laid-back enjoyment of playing its nine holes (each with two different tee blocks) is just one part of the bigger picture that will be forever etched in your memory.