KEY POINTS:
The South Island resort town of Wanaka has many spectacular attractions, but not a top-quality golf course. Within the next few days though, a resource consent application will be lodged with the Queenstown Lakes District Council for a new resort at Glendhu Bay, 10km from Wanaka on the road to Mt Aspiring.
The site for the proposed course is stunning. From the lake shore, it rises gently to old glacial lake terraces among which it's planned to build six of the holes. The view from the top is a breathtaking vista of snow-capped mountains, pristine lake and majestic poplar trees.
The man who developed Millbrook, Clearwater and the new Jack's Point courses, John Darby, is driving this project and describes the location as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. That's because of the setting and the Glendhu Bay microclimate which is slightly wetter, warmer and less windy than Wanaka.
The idea is for a golf course on the McCrae family's Glendhu Station following the process of tenure review - the process of converting high country pastoral leases into a combination of DOC reserve and freehold farmland.
The McCraes' tenure review was completed in 2005. They have farmed the land since 1969 and want to diversify for future generations. While 2800ha of Glendhu Station will continue as a sheep and cattle farm, it's planned to convert 180ha into a golf course and resort with accommodation for between 120 and 180 visitors in villas near the lakeside clubhouse and in 50 specially designed houses up in the lake terraces.
This is much smaller than the other two golfing resorts in the district. Millbrook accommodates about 600 people in the houses and hotel villas while Jack's Point is, says Darby, a "whole new town" with eventually about 2000 homes.
The proposal is for a championship-length golf course of 6376m for which only 53,000 cubic metres of earth will need to be shifted. That's about 10 per cent of what was moved when Formosa Auckland was built in the 1990s.
Lodging the documents is just the start. The dramatic growth of the Queenstown-Wanaka area since the turn of the century has not been to everyone's liking and Darby and the McCraes expect there'll be opposition, especially from the Upper Clutha Protection society.
Efforts to contact society spokesman Julian Howarth last week were unsuccessful but plans for this resort have been made with preservation and enhancement of the environment foremost.
None of the lake terraces houses will be visible from the road, there'll be public access with 5km of cycle and walkways, and extensive native re-vegetation planned.
John Darby says he has never yet been denied consent to build a golf course. He expects a resource consent hearing this autumn and hopes he might be shifting dirt by the end of the year.
