The rural town of Gore in the Southland region of the South Island. It is the official home of country music in New Zealand, boasts a number of museums and galleries, and is known for fly fishing on the Mataura river.

Every year in early June, Gore hosts the New Zealand Gold Guitar Awards, which incorporates the New Zealand Line Dancing Championships.

Fishers visit to chase trout a little smaller than the large trout statue that graces the town. In addition to the Mataura River, there are many productive streams in the area. And guided fishing trips are available.

The fishing and country music aren’t the only things to bring you here. Maybe you’d rather go flying in a Tiger Moth? Museums your thing?

Visit Gore’s Hokonui Moonshine Museum to learn about the area’s history of illicit whisky distilling. The Hokonui Moonshiners’ Festival celebrates this history in every March. And head to Gore Historical Museum  for insight into Gore’s Maori and European settler past.

And to see one of the finest art collections in Southland, visit the Eastern Southland Gallery. Here you’ll see the renowned John Money collection of New Zealand art and one of the country’s best collection of works by Ralph Hotere.