Stuff ventures into the heart of Southland to talk politics in the wake of Todd Barclay's resignation.

The Clutha-Southland electorate is enormous. It is bigger than Belgium or Taiwan. Switzerland only just pips Southland in size.

Yet despite being seven times larger than the entire Auckland region, Clutha-Southland is potentially the least understood electorate of New Zealand, if only for its far-flungedness.

The image of Clutha-Southland is one of simplicity – farmers, cheese rolls and a rolled "r". But behind the image is a complex picture – a huge province with significant divisions, yet one with a penchant for conflict avoidance and mystery.

IAIN McGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ Tony Wilson, mechanic at Dipton Engineering, said many of the locals in the valley didn't bother themselves with politics despite the tiny town's place in the national spotlight.

Which partially explains how a 24-year-old was overwhelmingly selected to represent New Zealand's largest province in Parliament three years ago. A young man who fell from grace after he allegedly secretly recorded his former Gore staffer Glenys Dickson.

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Stuff went all over the electorate to try and unwrap this mysterious giant electorate in the deep south. All the more mysterious because Clutha-Southlanders, on the whole, are reluctant to talk to the media. Requests for people's names were almost always declined.

IAIN McGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ Abandoned tea rooms near Parawa, isouth of Athol.

Invercargill is the largest metropolis in Southland, but the southern city has its own electorate that it shares with Stewart Island.

This means that the capital of Clutha-Southland is unquestionably Gore, which at 10,000 people has a whopping 17 per cent of the electorate's total population.

Gore is wealthy. It has the largest inland boat club in New Zealand and a surprisingly large population of classic cars. Gore has bars and restaurants you could find on Auckland's Ponsonby Rd. It's where the sitting Clutha-Southland MP is based.

IAIN McGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ Tourists cycle past a local in Te Anau.

But as you move westwards from Gore into central Southland proper, you get a wild and woolly region where traditional New Zealand is at its purest.

Nightcaps is nestled deep within the heart of Southland both geographically and culturally. Nightcaps has the Nightcaps Hotel – a two-storied, art-deco style building with classic white stucco cladding.

When asking one of the locals, who naturally refused to be named, what the biggest political issue is in Nightcaps, he said "the price of p*** I suppose."

IAIN McGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ The Clutha-Southland electorate encompasses both the glitz of million-dollar Queenstown and old-school provincial hamlets like Nightcaps and Dipton.

The Nightcaps Hotel is full of banter and good times. It may be different from the rest of Clutha-Southland, but it shares that same reticent attitude found in all corners of the province.

None of the locals had heard of Barclay ever coming to Nightcaps.

Southland's differences are highlighted by the presence on its northern boundary of perhaps its most surprising town – Queenstown. It has more people than Gore but is an international tourist destination that has almost nothing in common with the rest of Southland.

IAIN McGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ Tourists on the Queenstown waterfront in the north of the Clutha-Southland electorate.

New Zealanders living in Queenstown are hard to find, but the Frankton Arms pub, 8 kilometres from the town, was well populated with them.

The locals were generally sympathetic toward Barclay, but disappointed in what had happened.

"When you're talking to the working man, the working man wants an honest man up there and he doesn't look that way to me," one man, who refused to be named, said.

IAIN McGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ A barn between Mossburn and Nightcaps in the heart of the Clutha-Southland electorate.

Another local, Kirk Puller, expressed the feeling of many across Southland – sympathy for Barclay's predicament.

"He probably means well and he's probably given it everything he's got, he just made a really big mistake and he just went along with that mistake a little bit too long."

The locals were quick to emphasise that although they are very much part of Otago, they feel a deep connection to Southland. None thought the electoral boundaries inappropriate.

IAIN McGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ Dipton, where Prime Minister Bill English came from, is a blink-and-you-miss-it town.

In the west of the electorate is Fiordland, different again entirely – where small communities nestled amongst the mountains and lakes live off tourism and many are keen fishermen.

Lloyd Matheson runs Southern Lakes Helicopters. He's also the town's ex-cop and has a deep involvement in community groups.

Matheson said Clutha-Southland was naturally blue because the province's interests dove-tailed with the National Party's.

"I think it's an area that makes a lot of money and I think the National Party has really looked after entrepreneurs and business people."

He admitted there was some consternation when Barclay was picked for the area but he soon proved his worth.

"Were people surprised when they put someone so young in there? I think they were, I think they were sort of old school and a young new face coming on is sort of out of left field.

IAIN McGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ Dipton resident Lorna Harris, holding her grandson Jake Holder, knew Todd Barclay when he was "a wee fella".

"He was very active in the area and was always around at meetings."

Matheson said there was some confusion at the time about Barclay's appointment.

"I don't know how he got to be there but he just arrived and people adopted him and there was a lot of scepticism about how good he was going to be compared to his predecessor."

IAIN McGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ The table was set and the lamingtons were ready but there was nobody around at the supposed power centre of the Clutha-Southland electorate, the Winton Senior Citizen's Centre.

Clutha-Southland's electoral process is so complicated none of the scores of locals Stuff talked to knew how it worked.

In New Zealand cities, party members meet up in one location to pick a candidate – a simple matter in a place like Mt Albert or Epsom where the electorate is just 20 square kilometres.

But in Clutha-Southland the population of just 60,000 is spread over almost 40,000sqkm, making the process much more long-winded.

In what appears to be a sort of pre-election election, party delegates are selected from National's 18 Clutha-Southland branches – about one delegate per 10 party members.

A party board and a pre-selection committee are then selected, who then narrow down a list of MP hopefuls to a maximum five candidates.

Then the candidates meet a selection of 120 of the party delegates, a sort of Clutha-Southland National Party parliament that assembles just to pick a new candidate.

IAIN McGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ The Senior Citizens' Centre in Winton.

Barclay's resignation means the Clutha-Southland National Party now has to begin the long, arduous selection process all over again.

Even then, it's not clear if the delegates individually decide, or whether it's more of a communal experience – a few strong individuals making their minds up and inevitably getting the support of the delegates.

The Winton Senior Citizens' Centre was mentioned by locals as being a sort of "powerhouse" for political power in Clutha-Southland. The suggestion was it was like a council of tribal elders who pull the strings for the entire region.

No one was at the Centre when Stuff visited – but there were lamingtons set out on the tables, a sign of an impending meeting.

A neighbour who did not want to be named, confirmed the Association's role as a broker of power in region and said they had "lots of meetings".

Stuffapproached another man in his 60s nearby, who said he wasn't "old enough" to join.

IAIN McGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ Decay near Dipton.

There may be an element of electoral process in Southland, but a stronger influence, and one which locals confirmed all over the electorate, is the power of who you know.

It's a tremendous coincidence Bill English and Todd Barclay are both from the tiny town of Dipton, with just 150 people.

Barclay's parents once owned the Four Square and English owned a farm up the hill.

The story goes that Barclay emailed English, deputy prime minister at the time, out of the blue looking for a job at just 19 years old. English took him on and, within less than two years, Barclay was working for John Key.

These days, Dipton is quieter than it used to be. The Barclays' Four Square has long gone, the only remaining dairy hasn't yet reopened and the souvenir shop is due to close soon.

The only places open when Stuff visited were two workshops.

Tony Wilson, mechanic at Dipton Engineering, said many of the locals in the valley didn't bother themselves with politics despite the tiny town's place in the national spotlight.

"A lot of the farmers probably do. I's a big thing with the farmers, probably not so much us in general."

Lorna Harris, holding her 2-year-old grandson Jake Holder, said she had known the Barclays when they lived there and recalled Todd as "a wee fella".

"When they came to live here they bought the Four Square shop over there. He was a wee bit of a hangman back then!"

Both Barclay and English have moved on from Dipton now.

In most New Zealand electorates political front-runners are easily predicted. Over half of New Zealand electorates are smaller than Greater Gore alone, limiting the candidate pool to a handful of community leaders.

Clutha-Southland's next MP could be from anywhere – a prominent farmer in Lumsden, head of the fishing club in Manapouri or the owner of a pub in Queenstown. Perhaps Nightcaps will be lucky enough to have one of its own chosen for the title.

One thing is certain. The process will be long and opaque. Most important, because it's Southland, you'll never be sure how it all came about.