The road to Gore
Words by chegs chisholm
The kids and I went to Gore for the school holidays. “Ohh,” cooed our nearest and dearest, “don’t have too much fun,” they mocked gently.
Gore has a bit of a reputation. The weather can be dreary, the main street infamously (and not 100 per cent correctly) labelled a racetrack for hoons. There’s some trout in the river, a bunch of milk factories and a lot of gumboots. The small park in the middle of town with its aviary of brightly coloured birds is beautiful. There’s an ice rink, a swimming pool, a couple of decent eateries, a very good clothing store, mountain bike tracks, hills to run in and both the south west coast (Catlins) and south east coast (Riverton) within short driving distance. There might not be big city excitement, but Gore has its own stuff going on.
But I haven’t been tasked with writing about Gore; rather what to do on the drive south to Gore from Wanaka. My 10-year-old and seven-year-old have travelled this road so much that they like to plan the stops we will make well in advance. Joining us on this trip are our two large dogs – Tui and Spencer, the pup – so our first stop is Big Dogs on the Luggate-Tarras Road. We drop the old dog off at this purpose-built ‘kennel’ for, well, big dogs. Tui has recently packed on the pounds so this free-range space is perfectly for her to roam around, chase rabbits and find her fitness again. She seems ecstatic to be free of the puppy for a few days, the car is now lighter, and we have more room.
At Cromwell we head into PaperPlus for books and an Origami for Kids craft kit. We fill the car up at BP and grab three pies. We are aware that we will be driving past the renowned Jimmy’s Pies in Roxburgh, but 50 minutes is too long for our tummies to wait.
We don’t often stop in Clyde, unless I have a hankering for beautiful things at the Folklore store or a decent coffee from The Merchant of Clyde. But we do stop once we cross the river (we tend to take the more scenic Earnscleugh Road to Roxburgh) at the Clyde dam. Our goal is to hear the roar of the water and risk being blown away by the immense flow as the gates open. It wasn’t open and we weren’t blown away but never mind, the puppy got a run around and some leftover pie.
Onwards we go. Had it been a nicer day, we would have stopped at Fairview Orchard where they have set up a café with real fruit ice-cream alongside their fabulous fruit shop. We agreed that it was too cold for ice-cream, so it was on to Roxburgh public toilets. Yes toilets. A successful road trip, especially with kids, needs a good toilet.
15 minutes up the road at Millers flat there is good food at Fagan’s café and the school playground is a good space to stretch kids’ and dogs’ legs. Millers Flat to Gore, for us, is simply about getting it done. This is our “almost there” moment, even though it’s only about halfway. As we wind through the hills, we’re focused on seeing Dad, who works in Gore four days a week.
As we leave Tapanui (sorry, we do tend to just drive on through), we can almost always see the chimney of the Mataura Valley Milk factory and the billboard that says ‘Gore: For gumboots and dinner jackets’ lets us know that this short two-and-a-half hour drive is all but over.
The road to Gore isn’t long but it’s beautiful and the scenery changes regularly as it flies by. We’ll do this trip again and again, stopping to do different things depending on the season, but when we get to Gore, no matter the weather, we can guarantee there will always be gumboots. Not so many dinner jackets.
also on the road
Look out for Shingle Creek Collectables, on the hill on State Highway 8 just before you hit Roxburgh and give yourself time to mooch around this old pub full of treasures. Owner Marlene has it filled to overflowing with everything old and interesting.
Opening hours vary, check the facebook page for details.