We arrived in Gore yesterday after a 150 kilometer drive southward from Dunedin where we'd had a week of absolutely awful weather. Dire even for here. There's been a few days stuck in the van with rain belting outside and gusts of wind rocking us. It got down to 11 degrees one day. My answer to being cold is to put another layer on and cook something in the oven. That warms the van pretty quickly. We did enjoy Dunedin in spite of the weather. The city is so full of Scottish character with its stone buildings constructed over 100 years and more ago. I decided Dunedin is a lot like Christchurch used to be before tourism and earthquakes, though I'm not quite sure why because the square is octagonal and it is not at all flat! The statue of Robbie Burns still has pride of place in the center. I was amazed that he was only 36 when he died having written all that poetry. There have been some articles in the Otago Daily Times bemoaning the fact that with its population of 127,000, Dunedin has slipped to 6th place for city size in NZ, behind Tauranga (5th) and Hamilton (4th). The city is growing at a slower rate than others and there is a move to attract more people, however others would prefer the city to stay the size it is and we certainly like it. It is not overly busy with traffic, there are lots of young people (and uni isn't even back yet), and plenty of great bars and cafes tucked away inside the lovely old buildings. The shopping is good too. We enjoyed the museums, both the science museum, and the Settlers. At the science museum Warren insisted on taking me to the planetarium for my education. It scares me to realise how small and unimportant we are among of all those stars, planets and galaxies. I especially loved the Settlers Museum. My Scottish forebears came to this area in the 1870s, so I am very interested in what their lives might have been like back then. Not so long ago really. There are diaramas and models which bring it all to life. We also managed to see a couple of movies to while away some wet afternoons, which was a treat. 

Yesterday we made the most of a reasonably decent day to drive 150k to Gore. We had a lovely late afternoon walk and pleasant evening before the next front arrived in the early hours of this morning. As predicted, today it is blowing a gale. We're parked in the Gore A and P showgrounds which are very nice and we'll just wait it out with a few other campers. A bit of rock n roll in the van won't hurt us but I do wonder how some the travellers in their tents and small hired vans are getting along.

Warren was very excited to see the Creamota Factory in Gore, a monument to his favourite food, porridge, and his Scots ancestry.