Another staggering tale from Waahi Taakaro

Dear oh deer

We thought we had seen it all at Waahi Taakaro golf course.

We’ve survived two big floods over the last year as well as being threatened by droughts and forest fires in the past.

We’ve had a hawk that flogged a golf ball, a seal that swam up the river to spend a day lounging on the rocks by our golf shop, a stoat sent to his maker by a quick-thinking club-wielding golfer, numerous incursions by pigs - some of which have ended up in the pot - who have rooted up turf on the course and regular sightings of deer roaming the fairways. We’ve had to chase cattle, sheep and horses off the course and one very stubborn donkey. And there has been several odd (very odd) out-of-it humans to deal with who have wandered onto the course to commute with nature.

But last Saturday morning the latest in our litany of the unusual occurred. Just before we were due to tee-off at 10am, a young stag waded down the river passed the clubhouse, seemingly oblivious to a hardy bunch of the club members about to brave the rain and wind. It wasn’t until he was videoed from the riverbank that our star-struck prime cut of venison leapt out of the water and scarpered off across No 18 green and two fairways before jumping the boundary fence.

And he didn’t even have the manners to book a tee time.

Expect the unexpected when you play at Waahi Taakaro.