Gore sits on the Mataura River in eastern Southland, halfway between Dunedin and Invercargill on State Highway 1. It is a farming service town first, but it has two claims that give it more character than most small highway stops: Gore calls itself the world capital of brown trout fishing, and it is New Zealand's country music capital.
The river is the serious draw. Anglers come for dry-fly fishing on the Mataura, while non-anglers get the joke from the giant Brown Trout Statue at the town entrance. Around the heritage precinct, the Eastern Southland Gallery is better than you expect in a town this size, with the Ralph Hotere and John Money collections giving Gore a real art stop.
Gore is also proud of its illegal-whiskey past. The Old Hokonui Museum and Distillery turns Southland moonshine stories into a local-history museum, and the annual Gold Guitar Awards keep the town's country music reputation alive. You do not need a full day unless you are fishing, but Gore is worth a deliberate stop if you are crossing Southland rather than simply driving through it.