South Otago Town & Country Club Inc is a club bar on Yarmouth Street in the South Otago town of Balclutha, holding a 4.3 rating from 147 Google reviews, with hours and updates best checked on its Facebook page.
Clubs like this are the working pubs of rural New Zealand — members' bars where travellers, sports teams and shearers fresh off the job simply sign the visitors' book at the door. Drinks are usually priced the way a club charges rather than a city bar, the pace is slower, and the entertainment comes from raffles, snooker, the TAB and whoever is at the bar that night. Regulars know the shape of the week — club nights, meat raffles, the big game on the screen — and that asking at the bar is the fastest way in if you are new.
For Balclutha locals and travellers heading on to the Catlins, it is the town's straightforward answer to where to have a quiet drink.