Luxury Lodges · The Clifftop
Kauri Cliffs
Matauri Bay, Northland
A championship course strung along the cliffs, and the Pacific doing the rest.
The Lodge
Kauri Cliffs sits above Matauri Bay in the Far North, on six thousand acres of farm and native forest that run down to the Pacific. It is the northernmost of the three lodges the Robertson family built and Rosewood now runs — and the one where the coastline does the heavy lifting.
The golf course is the headline: David Harman laid it along the clifftops, and fifteen of its eighteen holes look out to sea. But the quieter pleasures are the private beaches (Pink Beach and Waiaua Bay among them), reached by farm track and, most days, entirely your own.
We use Kauri Cliffs when a journey opens or closes in the north and wants space rather than a town. It is a warm-water, big-sky counterpoint to the alpine south, and an easy flight from Auckland.
The Lodge, In Pictures
The infinity pool above the Pacific at Kauri Cliffs
The Practicalities, Honestly
The Nights It Deserves
Two, or three if there is golf in the party. The course deserves a full round and a lazy morning after.
Who It Suits
Golfers, plainly; and anyone who wants the Bay of Islands’ coastline with room to breathe. First and last nights for guests flying via Auckland.
When To Go
November to April for warm water and the beaches at their best. The shoulder months are mild and quiet; the north rarely turns truly cold.
Getting There
A short flight from Auckland to Kerikeri or Kaitaia, then a transfer; helicopters land on the property.
From Our Notes
What twenty-five years of placing guests here has taught us
01
Ask for a suite with an uninterrupted sea aspect rather than one angled to the fairway — the ocean is the reason to be here. The Owner’s Cottage suits a family or two couples wanting their own ground.
02
Non-golfers are badly served by thinking of this as a golf lodge. The better day is a guided walk down to a private beach with a picnic put ashore, and a swim nobody else will share.
03
The Cavalli Islands, offshore, hold some of Northland’s best diving, including the wreck of the Rainbow Warrior. We arrange the private boat; it is a half-day most guests do not know to ask for.
How We Place It
Kauri Cliffs and The Landing sit an easy hop apart in the Far North, and we sometimes use both to build a slow northern coast before the journey turns south. It also pairs cleanly with a first or last night at Delamore on Waiheke, either side of Auckland.
Kauri Cliffs, placed properly
A lodge is only ever one piece of a journey. Tell us what drew you here and we will design the days around it: the right nights, the right season, the right hands.
Start a Conversation