12-28-10

Queenstown to Gore

I had a wonderful ride from Queenstown to Gore. I left headed north over a little road from Gibbston to Wanaka and then decided to make a run of the west coast since it was such a nice day. That route takes you by two huge lakes and I ended up at the north end of Lake Wanaka at a little town of Makarora where the clouds were very low and it was starting to spit a little rain.

 I asked at the gas station, actually petrol station/café and the guy said it was going to get really nasty up the road and it would be at lest two or three hours before I could find any place that would possibly have a place to stay. Humm, three hours of serious rain and very cold and then MAYBE find a place to stay….. not a good deal, so I turned around and beat feet for the south lands. I headed through Cromwell and Alexandra and Ross Junction. Then on down to Gore on a really nice little road.

I am not sure exactly where these photos were taken but along the roads I traveled. Some of these outlooks are just breath taking beautiful. I wish I had a really good camera with me for scenes like these.

Just stunning

first time I have ever seen a sheep sign on a highway and sure enough there were sheep wandering around and often just off the road. Not good to hit one on a motorcycle for sure.

Just off the road I could see this collection of Big ones and had to stop and take pictures for Charlies son Robert who is over in Bozeman and has a business of making rigs like this as well as high lift kits for the local boyz to ride around in.

This school bus was sure cute and was my favorite.

Must belong to a chick eh?

For when you need to get there really quick.

This one is another one for Uncle Mike. A 1937 Morris that was for sale along the highway. This looks like almost as much fun as a motorcycle.

give ‘em a call Mike.

I like the semaphore signal system that comes out of the body behind the door to ‘signal’ that you are turning.

This was an area where they were growing a lot of cherries and they have the orchards covered in netting to keep the birds away.

A ‘Tidy’ little scene and quite common.

 Gore is a fair size town and I am happily staying at the old fire station that is now a backpacker hostel. There are only one girl and two Japanese boys here. it is very quiet and the kitchen is always clean and nice.

It was a nice morning and I read on one of the stores in town that there was something called Gore Trots day on Monday and I decided I needed to go after finding that it was going to be horse races. I have never been to a real horse race before so off I went, but forgot to bring my little camera. Too bad as it was a pretty cool deal with horses pulling little carts. They had some sort of strange harness hanging from the horses and evidently this keeps them from galloping or trotting. They call this Pacer racing. It was really neat to see them all lined up behind a pace car and then OFF they went and  ran around the track a little more than a mile. WOW, they were really smoking it as they came by the grandstand and hit the finish line. I was lucky to be sitting next to a guy named Erin who told me all about what was going on and answered lots of my questions. He was betting on the races and he won two races that I was sitting with him on. He said so far he had won three races. Pretty cool to have a new friend that is a winner eh? Not like some of my other friends. L

Just across the street from the hostel is the museum. When I went in the lady said that the museum was free but if I wanted to go through the new moonshine museum that they had just opened, I needed to pay five bucks. If I did that she said I could get a taste of the stuff too… well, I had to go through and see what the moonshine deal was all about since she said that the area turned prohibition in 1902 and they kept it that way until 1952… fifty years. I asked if her dad ever drank any and she just smiled and wouldn’t say. She wouldn’t say if she had either.

It turns out that the most famous one is a MacRae and I would imagine that this is an ancestor of our famous Wally MacRae our Cowboy Poet up on the Rosebud near where I live in Montana. Sounds like it runs in the family.

they had a wall all decorated up with different booz related things. I liked these the best as half naked women are always interesting.

 (Here ya go Frazier, necked Kiwi girls.)

Prohibition was a huge issue and these are some of the posters that were out at the time.

I see that just down the street is a Salvation Army store so they are still active here even though they were finally out voted and they can now have booze here.

Now to the regular museum. I never did get that taste of the moonshine.

Cactus Jack used to have a huge collection of tobacco tins, so this one is for you Jack. Edgeworths and Half and Half I think I still have some place in my ‘stuff’.

Nice wooden hand washing machine in really excellent shape.

Gore is the Brown trout capitol of New Zealand or so he sign says coming into town. It looks like these boys did ok back in the old days. They sure had a cool little car too. Here ya go Sam, a place to come down and try your hand with your fly rod.

I always marvel at what some of those women can do with lace.

A club for killing seals.