It's only a two and a half hour drive from Auckland to the Dunes Golf resort at Matarangi and yet for many people it's a peninsula too far. Most of my friends from overseas; no make that all of them have never explored the top half of the Coromandel Peninsula and more's the pity because it truly has that feel of a simpler place in time.
As for me it was also an opportunity to play Mount Maunganui which is fortunate in having a linksland feel about it. But alas because trees grow so quickly in Godzone and with the development of The Mount as a retirement location, you can no longer see the sea from the course.