Oakleigh Motel Gore

Our faith week team including me, Kenny, and Kathryn were invited by a group of the staff to join them in helping to lead portions of a youth camp called Easter Camp. This camp was held in Gore which is pretty far south on the South Island of New Zealand. We arrived on Friday night after making a few short stops along the way. The first was at the Moeraki Boulders at sunset with the moon rising in the sky. The next was in Dunedin at the ...

... plane from Auckland and it was now way after lunch. We stopped in a little town on the East Coast and stuffed ourselves on these huge and very tasty hamburgers. Delicious even though they were smothered in mayonaise. Fully sated with food we continued on our journey to get to Gore, our overnight stop before we headed off to Milford Sound the following day. We had read about the Morekai ...

... seemed that their were'nt many wedding suitors from out of town if you get my drift. The first cafe was rejected, no pies, and we settled on another with a huge choice and a selection of cakes containing E numbers from the fringes of the visible spectrum. John went for double pie, one mince and one steak and cheese, whilst I went for mince pie and and a fairly conservative looking ...

... a half days and really didn't want to leave! We just happened to show up on day 1 of sheep shearing which was so exciting for us! We are definitely people who like to jump in and get our hands dirty and opportunities for this abound when sheep shearing time comes around. During our time there we learned so much about farming, about sheep, about the process of shearing and selling wool, and we got to help out by putting our hands to work alongside the Taylor family ...

... called in to see the Gypsy Man. He has a caravan by the side of the road, filled with things he has made from junk. Don't know how he makes a living though. Found a campsite at Pounawea. Lovely site right next to beach but they were still building some of the buildings there! Had a lovely walk on the beach where we got quite close to a group of sealions fighting (playing we think). Tomorrow is Dunedin and Oamaru.

... and then Route 90 to Gore. Take a look at the map and decide your alternatives. Gore is known as the Brown Trout Capital of the World by the way and has the Hukonui Moonshine Museum plus is the Country Music Capital of New Zealand. Busy little place at various times of the year. The Green Room Cafe is our favoutite stop in town. At Gore you also have an alternative route depending on your time frame or what direction you may wish to travel. Route ...

... want to give you a warm bed, my food, and buy you a stubbie. Come on... I promise we aren't weird. We're celebrating. I just had my surgery on my knee... Come on out. Ok. Well just stop on by... We're celebrating." All this while his friend was peeing on a nearby tree. I've never heard of celebrating surgery. Maybe celebrating a successful life saving one, but a knee surgery? Why was he walking around? Let's just say I didn't sleep well the rest of the night ...

... on the boat cruise. Routeburn track hike is considered to be one of the most difficult tracks to do here in NZ, but it is also one of the most scenic hikes and you really get to see nature at it's best and as we found out at it's worse! Nature has no mercy when it really gets going, with rain and hail and sometimes snow! Luckily rain and sharp winds were about the only nasty things we came across. The group before us got to see snow! And this was in February. Once you have your ...

... at TeAnua. On the way to our campsite we visited the Englington valley and the Hollyford Valley. Hollyford is where we camped. The campsite was quite interesting. At the enterance of the campsite, there was a fake bomb, which welcomed you inside and there was an umberella over a small waterfall, and underneath were a few cans, that was our fridge. As you go inside the campsite, you are of course once again astonished by ...

Booked the bus from the armpit of NZ, Invercargill (the owner of the hostel was very jealous of us being able to leave), to the capital of trout fishing Gore. To get a lift to the farm I had planned to work on. Once on the bus, thought it best to book accommodation, only to find the only place in town was full. As the information centres are really good in NZ, I thought no probs ...