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When one ponders which inland designs rank among the most beautiful for golf, an elite few are repeatedly mentioned; Gleneagles in Scotland, Banff and Jasper in the Canadian Rockies, and a handful of other worldwide greats receive the most attention. Wairakei International Golf Course in the middle of the north Island of New Zealand, may find its way to the tip of few tongues engaged in the conversation, but as its profile grows, so too will its place in the elite company it deserves. 

Peter Thomson designed the course in 1970, which made it among the first courses in Thomson’s now illustrious design career. To that point known almost exclusively in tourism circles as a naturalized, backcountry place, Thomson's work here at long last put New Zealand on the golf map, a feat recognized by Golf Digest, which named the course among the top 20 in the world outside the United States. Set in a swath of rolling fields once reserved for the flocks of shepherds, just off the north shores of the famous Lake Taupo, Thomson and his design partners of the era, Harris and Wolveridge, took the pastoral landscape they were blessed with and crafted one of the Southern Hemisphere's most significant golf courses of the modern era. A predecessor to such courses now garnering worldwide acclaim like Kauri Cliffs, Wairakei is the forefather to the New Zealand golf travel industry.

The course itself starts out with a pair of early temptations, par fives on the first and third holes that challenge the player from the start while still offering the chance to open with birdies. Both can be reached by the longer hitter, but smartly placed bunkers will snare drives and long approaches that are anything approximating errant.

Upon arriving at the fifth hole the golfer finds respite with a 181-yard par three, which plays alongside a ridged, grassy bluff that flanks the left side of the hole. Bunkers are located short of the green at both its left and right edges, putting the emphasis on a solid iron that must carry all the way to this wide but shallow green. Making three and running to the sixth tee is desirable, if only for the view that awaits on the next tee.

Six measures 477 yards, but the view on this breathtaking par four spans twenty miles or more in the clear New Zealand sky. With a narrow landing area, players must ignore the hole's yardage, and the temptation it generates to reach back for a little more distance, to ensure they find the fairway and avoid the yawning left-side bunker. The approach is equally demanding, with bunkers on all sides of a subtly elevated green.

The eighth is another hole that has gained a reputation as one of the most interesting par fours in New Zealand. Measuring 385 yards from the back tees, the golfer must lay well back for the best angle into a green fit between two trees, and tucked behind a small pond. The second option is to try to drive near the end of the narrowing fairway, as close to the water as possible. If the second, more daring option is chosen, the drive must be perfect, or else the short iron approach will have to negotiate the left tree.