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The Hills

Golf Course

Sir Michael Hill's private golf course was designed by Darby Partners and opened in 2007 to host the New Zealand Open. The Par 72 inland links layout measures 6596m from the championship tees and is set over 500 acres of land across a glacial valley. The Hills is home to an incredible array of flora including native brown top grasses and wild native mountain tussocks. Sculptures crafted by New Zealand artists compliment the natural beauty of the course’s lakes, waterways and wetland areas. Winter snow and frost conditions provide the ideal climate for the finest grasses suited to the modern day game of golf.

17th hole, The Hills, Arrowtown

The Mill race winds its way through the property and feeds the ten lakes and various ponds and waterways on the golf course. There are no parallel fairways and no two holes alike. Most tees are elevated, giving not only excellent visuals of the challenge ahead, but a 360 degree panorama of spectacular snow capped mountain scenery all year round.

The Clubhouse

The Hills Clubhouse designed by Andrew Patterson of Patterson Associates Ltd, was a supreme award winner, in the prestigious 2008 New Zealand Institute of Architects Resene Awards for Architecture. The complex was shortlisted as a finalist in the inaugural World Architecture Festival in Barcelona in 2007. A sophisticated bunker with less than a quarter of it above ground, the Clubhouse is designed to seamlessly integrate with the landscape. The innovative roof is topped with native tussock and the large floor to ceiling windows and covered deck provide a grandstand view of the 18th green. The brief from The Hills owner, Michael Hill, was for a unique and distinctive Clubhouse – the Supreme Award judges reinforced this describing it as a building of “international stature.”