Three Days in Gore

Time to move on again, so it was goodbye to Manapouri and we headed down SH94 to Gore, 140km trip.  On the way we saw plenty of examples of the farmers “making hay while the sun shines”.  Just as well, as the rain came down later in the day, luckily it is all baled up and covered in plastic wrap.

We had stayed at Gore previously at the A & P Showgrounds, and this time thought we would try a different venue.  So here we are at the Gore Town and Country Club.  It’s a little snug when full, but very good value at $15 a night for a power site.

Gore Town and Country Club

The club restaurant was open that night,  Sunday, but closed the following two nights.  So we decided we would go over for a meal, and hopefully a Sunday Roast would be on the menu.  Sorry, no roast tonight, we were told, so we had a look at the menu and thought again.  Robin chose a steak, no surprises there, but I decided I couldn't face a big main  meal.  So I went with fish chowder (yes, once more) and an entrée of crumbed prawns.  It was all so delicious.

Dinner at T & C Club Restaurant

Gore is an attractive town with tree lined streets and pretty parks.  Named after Governor Gore Browne, it is Southland's second largest town.   It lies on the banks of the Mataura River, famed for its brown trout and is  known as  New Zealand's capital of country music and  the world's capital of brown trout fishing.

Gore, famous for country music and brown trout fishing

Generations of New Zealand children grew up eating Flemings Creamoata porridge for breakfast.  The Flemings "Creamoata Mill" is an iconic local building in town.  Production of all products was moved to Australia in 2001, and Creamoata was discontinued in 2008 after declining sales.  The building's famous "Sgt Dan" remains because rights to it have been purchased by the buildings current owner "Sgt Dan Stockfoods Ltd”, and the  building has a Category I listing with Heritage New Zealand.

Sgt Dan standing tall

We went out exploring one afternoon, driving an oval shaped route from Gore and back through the countryside, a road we hadn’t previously traveled on.  And goodness me, on reaching Clinton we discovered this sign, we had just driven along the Presidential Highway!

This stretch of highway between Clinton and Gore acquired unexpected fame in the 1990s when Bill Clinton and Al Gore were respectively president and vice-president of the United States. When Clinton visited New Zealand in 1999, a photograph of the road sign was presented to him by the United States ambassador, Josiah Beeman.

How about that!

The hot weather has moved on for a while, and we have wet and windy conditions for a few days, it seems.  That is certainly a change from those extra hot temperatures we have been experiencing lately.