But back to Gore

It's the first day in a long time that I have been home during daylight and I have discovered that my windows have developed their own insulation courtesy of the stock trucks. It won't be a case of washing the windows as chipping away the mud.

But back to Gore, which is now a week ago - sorry about my slackness but Nat Com is all consuming :-)

First things, for those of you who have not driven out in the countryside for a while, this is pretty much what you see - the back of a Fonterra milk tanker and in the South Island you get that view for ages cause it's hard to find passing lane.

And when you get to Gore after six hours of driving you feel like this

because even though the locals are wandering around in t-shirts, it is cold and you can tell cause they have the heating on already. Lovely toasty warm cafes and country clubs - mmmmmm.

So whats Gore famous for and why should you go there?

there's the Creamoata factory with Sargent Dan

and Sam the Ram

To be fair Southland has a proud history of settlement, farming and moonshine. They are our hillbilly's and what's great about them is that they have a strong sense of community and place. They are rightly proud of Gore.

Gore is a special place....with special people who roll their 'r's'

Look! Here is one of those special people now.

Can you see her, there on the left.

I was having a zen moment taking photos of flowers in a wee park when this woman came up to me to ask if I was aware that I had captured her image and she was worried about her security.

Fair enough.

I explained to her that I was aware of her kind of concerns and that I didn't put photos of people faces on my blog unless they knew I was going to - just in case they are mass murderers and I wouldn't want to blow their cover, y'know how that can be.

She went on to tell me that she had been grabbed by a stranger (please note: all scary strangers are men by default) and he wrenched her arm quite badly and pushed her into her friend.

I'm not sure how she equated being on my blog and being attacked by a stranger. All I could do is encourage her to hurry home before dark, at least hurry away from me so I could go stand on a Main Street corner and wait for Wazza my undie contact.

No I didn't watch out for strangers who might give me a random bash - I figure there are enough people who have my back that karma would make life very difficult for him if he did.

Gore can be quite a strange place.

It will be stranger still come July when the Young Farmers come to town.

Gor' blimey

I'm going to Gore today, in the rain.

Seven hours driving in the rain.

Thats all day in the car, in the rain.

Then tomorrow I'm going to Waimumu Field Days, probably in the rain.

I have my gumboots though, good for wearing in the rain.

They will go well with my corporate wear at the National Bank Young Farmer of the Year Contest Launch, probably in the rain.

I wonder if the cow poo will just wash off my gumboots in the rain?

Did you know Gore has a Destination Gore website? No neither did I, currently in the rain.

You'll be so pleased to know

on Sunday I went to Dannevirke for the day (that involved 1hour plane trip, an hour driving there and in reverse to get home) for East Coast Club Training - now that doesn't mean anything to you and I'm telling you this because on the plane I got what I will now refer to as "Richie time" except that I won't use speech marks very often (mostly because I will forget).

Richie time (see, forgot already) is when there is undistracted time with Richie CEO of my new job, not my job alone of course, though some people would say that I need that kind of close direction. But the important thing is I checked with him as brand guardian if it was okey dokey for me to blog about Young Farmers - that is not specifically individual young farmers, but that is possible, but New Zealand Young Farmers (Clubs).

There are three wings to Young Farmers. NZYF being the main one that I manage, there's AgriKids that Bron manages - a massive programme in primary schools based around the clubs model that works so well from Young Farmers (since 1927). AgriKids is really popular and has the coolest activities for kids to learn farming skills with fun contest days...

and the super, the famous, the

National Bank Young Farmer of the Year Contest

which the very on to it Roz manages.

The Contest is a huge deal starting with District Finals, then Regional Finals and then the Grand Final which is what you will have seen on TV (this year live on Channel 6 and delayed on TV1), this is the 2009 final in Palmerston North

This year is in

Gore

in

July.

That's winter in Southland.. in Gore.

Did I tell you Swanndri is a sponsor?

Swanndri, please give me a jacket to wear in Gore.. in July.. in winter.. please.

The Contestants will be wearing theseglad I'm not them,

though they will have the considerable prize pool

to think about to keep them warm while they compete.