Hokonui

Living in Hokonui

Hokonui is the hill country above Gore, and it has the most colourful heritage of any range in Southland - which is saying something in a region that doesn't shy away from colour. The Hokonui Hills were the operational centre of New Zealand's most organised and persistent illicit whisky industry, running from the early 20th century through to the 1930s under the cover of remote gullies and the tight-knit Scottish community who had both the skills and the motivation. The Hokonui Moonshine Museum in Gore tells the full story and sells the contemporary legal version.

The Hokonui locality itself is the farming country on the eastern Southland ranges, with sheep and cattle on the hill faces above the Mataura Valley's flat farming land below. The ranges provided the remoteness that the whisky operation required and the pastoral farming that the hill country supports, and both industries have a history in this terrain.

Gore's services are close at the valley floor, and the broader Hokonui Hills Recreation Area provides walking tracks through the range for those who want to follow the moonshiners' routes at a recreational pace. The native bush remnants in the gullies are more intact than in most of the Southland lowlands, another legacy of the hills' relative remoteness.

Children from the Hokonui area attend Gore's schools.

Schools & Enrolment Zones in Hokonui

Schools in zone for Hokonui

Children living in Hokonui have a guaranteed right to enrol at these schools, based on Ministry of Education home zones.

• Central Southland College

  Secondary (Year 9-15) · roll 686 · decile 6

• St Thomas School (Winton)

  Full Primary · roll 89 · decile 9

• Southland Adventist Christian School

  Full Primary · roll 123 · decile 4

Check your school zone

Eat & Drink in Hokonui

Hokonui Weather

Current conditions: 6.5°C, overcast clouds

Hokonui Community