Bottled Sunshine

Drink Lane’s Bottled Sunshine. This delightful old-fashioned milk bar is on a street in Gore and I’ve been wanting to visit ever since I spotted it in late December. Yesterday I got there during the day and took photos of the outside before venturing into the shop. I don’t remember seeing such an authentic old milk bar that’s still open to the public!

Sunbeam Milk Bar

Gore, Southland, New Zealand. Photos taken by Liz 25 January 2019

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I bought some chocolate and met the owner Ted Cooney.

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sunbeam_milk_bar_05We chatted a wee bit and I found that his grandparents had come to New Zealand from Ireland. The inside was quite sparse and I didn’t take photos, it was the outside I’d really wanted to capture. It was a bonus that Ted kindly allowed me to take his photograph for my post.

Text/photos by Liz; Exploring Colour (2019)

19 thoughts on “Bottled Sunshine”

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  1. Ted bought the milkbar from the Houlihan family who owned it when we moved just around the corner in 1968. It would have been early 70s and he’s been there ever since. His ginger toupee was a standing joke, and I remember him being teased by the kids from the high school across the road. I did a lot of sewing after work, and many times I would pop round for a n extra reel of thread, buttons or a zipper … he had it all. He is currently one of the final two in the search for Gore’s icon. Linda, Gore

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  3. What a cool spot to find! Looks like the kind of place that could become a part of regular routine and when you walk in you’d hear the words I love to hear at my local ice cream shop, “The usual?” 😄😄💕

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    1. 🙂 Nice! Years ago we had a favourite pizza shop, did really good pizzas. The owner would always greet us with his trademark Howdy doody? We still remember that greeting with affection!

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  6. A nice old-fashioned artifact, and the proprietor looks like a nice guy. There are still some places calling themselves “dairy bars” in the area where I grew up (rural NY), but most are now called “ice cream shacks” or something similar. There’s at least one county that still has more cows than people, and farm stands selling raw milk, cheese, etc. but the dairy bars have been replaced by “convenience stores” with gas pumps.

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    1. Interesting to hear about where you come from Robert. Raw milk has only happened here very recently as it was illegal to sell it until just the last few years. When we go to Invercargill there’s a farm that advertises raw milk. They have an interesting sign and I thought I might take a photo and do a post.

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      1. Raw milk is now allowed in most states, but if you ship it across a state line, it’s a federal offense, and they’ve actually had FDA agents and police conduct raids on some farms, complete with SWAT team backup.

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  9. This is wonderful, Liz, capturing a piece of history that in many places has been supplanted by fast-food restaurants and chains of convenience stores. I had never seen the term “milk bar” used before, but your photos helped to give me an idea of what it meant. I looked on the internet and found this little article on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_bar) that gave me some of the context for the initial creation of milk bars.

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    1. Thanks, it was interesting to look at the article. There used to be a milk bar in Alexandra, Central Otago that was the classic milk bar where you could sit down for basic cafe fare, get a milkshake, or buy takeaway food. Haven’t been there for some time now and I don’t know if its still the same. Glad you enjoyed the post!

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