Next stop was a little town called Gore (which is south west of Dunedin). For some reason Gore has a bad reputation for being boring and a bit rugged - I actually found it to be quite a quaint town with lovely historic buildings, beautiful deer parks and gardens, a dancing Kea in the town aviary, great little cafes and the smell of cooked oats :) - from the Thistle factory. Gore historically was a valuable trade route and food gathering site back in the early 19th century and sits on the banks of the Mataura River, it has a history of illicit whiskey making and even has a Moonshine museum dedicated to the stories behind this practice.
We travelled a few times north of Gore to a township called Mandeville for lunch at a lovely restaurant called The Moth - which sits on the edge of an air field and has a museum and restoration workshop dedicated to tiger moth planes and old steam trains.
This seems as good a time as any to mention one of my favourite illustrators 'Edward Gorey'.. just because :)