Gulf Harbour Country Club fire: Crews battle large blaze in golf shop

Fire crews have battled a large fire north of Auckland at the Gulf Harbour Country Club.

Four fire engines - including a ladder truck - rushed to the club on Gulf Harbour Drive on the Whangaparāoa Peninsula just before 3am after Fire and Emergency NZ (Fenz) received “lots of calls” from the public.

However, while tackling the fire, crews called for more help with two further teams and trucks driving across to assist, a Fenz spokesman said.

“The crews arrived to a fire that was engulfing a golf shop, approximately 10m by 10m,” the spokesman said.

“And the fire was contained just after 4am.”

A fire investigator will go to the scene later today to try to determine the cause of the blaze.

The Gulf Harbour Country Club was once a bustling golf hotspot but is now deteriorating in a state of haunting abandonment.

Since its abrupt closure last July, the course, which hosted the 1998 World Cup of Golf and New Zealand Golf Open in 2005 and 2006, has become overgrown after once being “an emblem of manicured beauty”.