He was relatively prepared in the scheme of things, with his clubs with him, and bought 50 balls for $50.
He said initially he was off target – short then long – but by about ball number 15 he sailed one into the blue flag hole – which is sized larger than a regular golf hole.
The red flag, for the smaller hole of the two, wins those who sink a ball $10,000.
Haze Nukunuku said he had hit about 15 balls before the first one went in.
He said it took two crew members to confirm his success, but he still didn’t believe he had got it in.
“Just for my own sake and peace of mind, I walked over to where the binoculars were and had a look myself and was like ‘yea it actually is in’.
“I was trying to keep it suppressed because I didn’t want to get my hopes up, so I wasn’t yahooing.”
With more balls left in the bucket, the lucky golfer decided to continue playing, but by this time the wind had picked up and he made a call to switch clubs.
“Four or five balls later, something like that, give or take, one bounced and went in, and I was like ‘what the heck is going on’.”
He said he was left gobsmacked and pinching himself after winning a Taupō bungee jump and para-sailing trip as prizes.
“They kept telling me that it was the first time they had been working that it happened.
“It felt surreal, actually, we were just passing through and didn’t expect much of it.”
Lake Taupō Hole in One took to social media to congratulate Nukunuku and said he scored “two of the cleanest blue hole-in-ones in [our] history”.
“Using a gap wedge and pitching wedge as his weapons of choice… Haze landed in the blue bunker (twice).”
Nukunuku said on his drive home, he returned to the lakefront to attempt the challenge again, but attributed his lack of success this time to an injury sustained while on holiday.
“I’m not making excuses, it’s not my style, but we did 10-pin bowling and I hurt my lower back.”
Despite this, he managed to land 20 balls on the platoon.
Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.