Gore is a town of 8,200 people (2020) in the Southland region of New Zealand that is known as the world's capital of brown trout fishing, and New Zealand's capital of country music. It is on State Highway 1 about an hour's drive from Invercargill.
Understand
[edit]Named after Governor Gore Browne, the town is a service centre for the surrounding district.
Visitor information
[edit]- Visitor info from Gore District Council
- 1 Gore Visitor Centre, 16 Hokonui Dr, [email protected]. M-F 9AM-5PM. Serves as a souvenir shop and a connection point for bus travel.
Get in
[edit]By bus
[edit]There are bus services from Dunedin to Invercargill as well as to Queenstown and other places in the southern lakes district.
Intercity buses from Dunedin or Invercargill stop at the bus stop in front of the visitor centre.
By car
[edit]Gore is about 2.5 hours by road south from Dunedin, along State Highway 1.
By plane
[edit]Get around
[edit]
Gore is a small town so you can walk around it. If you’d go out of the town but doesn’t have your own vehicle, then you can grab a taxi via calling +6432081243 (MT Taxi Gore). If your mobile phone plan is data only, you can go to the visitor centre and ask the staff there to call a taxi for you.
See
[edit]
- 1 Eastern Southland Gallery, 14 Hokonui Drive (Corner Hokonui Drive & Norfolk Street). M-F 10AM-4:30PM, Sa Su 1-4PM. Includes the Ralph Hotere Gallery, which holds more than 60 works by this major New Zealand artist. Also the John Money Collection of New Zealand, Aboriginal Australian and West African art. Housed in a former Carnegie Library building. Free.
- Hands of Fame. A statue celebrating country music. It has a number of hand prints of country music artists, including Kenny Rogers.
- Hokonui Heritage Centre, Corner Hokonui Drive and Norfolk Street. M-F 8.30AM-5PM, Sa 9:30AM-4PM, Su 1-4PM. Includes the Hokonui Moonshine Museum and the Gore Historical Museum. The Moonshine Museum celebrates the district's historical illicit whiskey making. The Historical Museum includes an exhibition about trout fishing. Also has visitor information desk M-Sa. Historical Museum free, charge for Moonshine Museum..
- 2 Brown Trout Statue. A 9 meter, 1.5 ton sculpture of a brown trout at the entrance to the town. It was built in the 1980s by the Gore Host Lions Club. They chose to construct a brown trout, because the Mataura River that flows through the town is world-reknowned for its top-knotch troutfishing, and with the construction of the trout the town was declared to be the World Capital of Brown Trout Fishing. When other New Zealand cities began to contest the title, they held a fishing competition. While the number of fish caught was equal, all of the fish caught in Gore were brown trout while the competitors caught rainbow trout, so Gore kept the title with a competitive win to back it up.
- 3 Old Fire Station, 19 Hokonui Drive. Old fire station of the town. Later it became a hostel for backpackers and now vape stores. This historic building can still be viewed outside.
Do
[edit]- Gold Guitar Awards. Country music awards at King’s Birthday Weekend in early June.
- Freeze ya bits off busking Busking competition on the King’s Birthday Weekend.
- Trout fishing on the Mataura River. Gore is said to be the brown trout world capital.
Buy
[edit]- 1 CrossRoad Cycles, 21 Main Street, ☏ +6432089891. A bicycle shop where you can hire bicycles.
Eat
[edit]- 1 Cafe Ambience, 51 Main St, ☏ +64 3-208 5888.
- 2 The Green Room Cafe, 59 Irk St, ☏ +64 3-208 1005.
Drink
[edit]Sleep
[edit]- 1 Heartland Hotel Croyden, 100 Waimea Street. Scenic group hotel set in 6 acres.
- 2 ASURE Oakleigh Motel. 9 unit motel.
- 3 Gore Motor Camp, 35 Broughton Street. Cabins and pitches for tents and campervans.
Go next
[edit]| Routes through Gore |
| Dunedin ← Milton ← | E  S
|
→ Mataura → Invercargill |
| Te Anau ← | NW  SE
|
→ End |