Gore family toured the Coromandel incognito

By JOSIE CLARKE

The woman who could become America's First Lady on November 7, Tipper Gore, has taken top-secret time out on New Zealand's Coromandel Peninsula.

Mrs Gore and her daughters, Kristen and Sarah, backpacked around the Coromandel incognito in August last year with five secret service agents, who passed themselves off as American college professors.

Sarah, a Harvard University student writing for American travel guide Let's Go, had passed through two weeks earlier on her own on an authorised false passport under the name of Sarah Sidona.

Anne Robertson, who owns the Coromandel Backpackers Lodge in Whitianga with her husband, had no idea they had hosted the family of Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore until just before Christmas when a second Let's Go writer revealed Sarah Sidona's real identity.

"We said crikey, gee whiz. You mean to say we had the Gore family here?" The room the Gores stayed in has since been named the Vice-Presidential Suite.

The trio and their entourage visited Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach, or simply read and relaxed.

Mrs Gore was unassuming, quiet and not particularly outgoing, said Mrs Robertson - "like somebody's blond American mother."

Sarah was also quiet, self-assured and not demanding. "You never would have known. You could have knocked us down with a feather."

They signed the guest book "Sarah and co."

The latest edition of Let's Go describes how Sarah toured Rotorua, Bay of Plenty, East Coast, Taupo, Wellington and the Coromandel without once blowing her cover.

"Whether researching Taupo by motorbike or breezing through pool tournaments, Sarah took to Kiwi culture and it took to her," her introduction reads.

Ray Morley, the owner of the Celadon motel in Coromandel township, also hosted the Gores and their security guards.

Only this time, Sarah told him who she really was after one of the guards initially denied any knowledge of the three women to Mr Morley.

"She said, 'We're not going to insult you any longer. These are our security guards.' I said, 'Oh, how exciting, Who are you then?' She said, 'I'm Sarah Gore.'

"It was highly exciting.

"The kids are absolutely gorgeous, so natural and so courteous. They treated me like I was one of the family. They are lovely people."