Extracts from Birdies, Bogeys and Kiwis: Golfing Around New Zealand
As often happens during an unplanned road trip, we stop at the first accommodation sign when ready to call it quits. At Murchison we lay claim to the last available cottage…closely beating out another couple caught in the competition for limited accommodation but perhaps they were the lucky ones… Perhaps they found digs at the 5-star Owen River or Murchison Lodge and were enjoying their evening around a log fire with a fine glass or red or maybe a “wee dram” of single malt, while we have a humble bite to eat at the local cafe and I freeze the night away in our modest, last cottage…I wish I’d brought long woolly underwear and my floppy wool tam that was great on family visits to England. I wonder, is this the first of many nights, and days, where I’m caught in too-thin knickers?
…There’s a few more things to say about little Murchison – some very interesting and some very disturbing. It was given that name, as was nearby Mount Murchison, in honour of the Scottish geologist Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, one of the founders of the Royal Geographical Society. This whole area was part of the golf rush that lasted until the late 19th century. Notorious gold prospector and hotel proprietor, Scotsman George Fairweather Moonlight, a self-styled “leader-cum-sheriff” still leaves his mark on the community. There must have been plenty of hot times in the ol’ town way back then!
Long after the golf fever subsided, this quiet rural community had the misfortune to be near the epicentre of a major quake on 17 June 1929. So violent were the earth’s movements that Murchison was reduced to rubble and ten residents lost their lives. The upthrusts, subsidence and slips (landslides) have totally changed the topography of this area.
To follow in Chapter Three:
Attack Of The Sandflies…
Choosing A Beer to Complement A Good Possom Pie…
Eels At Hokitika And Racks At Haast…
Wanaka Fairways…
Golf Cluster Courses
