Methven Walkway – Day 212

Today we are exploring the Methven surroundings on the Methven Walkway.

This morning because it’s going to be raining tonight I am going to be taking to repair the top of our campervan just so we don’t get rained on then we are joining Wendy which is our host at the Mt Hutt Bunkhouse hostel for a bit of a walk. She’s going to take us through the Methven Walkway.

Throughout our entire stay in Methven. Wendy has given us heaps of stuff to do in the area from the Washpen falls to Te Awa Awa Rata Reserve. But this time we want to go somewhere that we can just walk to just to show how accessible are some of the activities around Methven.

The walk that we’re gonna be doing today is the Methven Walkway which spans about 11km around the town taking about 3 hours to complete the whole thing.

And at the beginning of the tracks there’s a bit of sign to give you some warm up suggestions which to be fair we never really warm up before a walk but since it’s there we decide to give it a go and then start stretching our legs.

There are heaps of signs indicating where exactly the Methven Walkway is so it’s impossible to miss and the start of the walkway goes through a small section of conifer forest.

It’s super windy today so this forest provides really welcome shelter from that blistering wind and among all the bird life that we see in the forest we also find a couple of plum trees which don’t taste very good.

Why do I keep trying those things? Urgh, just my teeth, urgh.

This very small pine forest extends all the way from the road to the local canal. There is a big canal going through Methven because it helps moving the water from the beautiful Southern Alps to all the fields around as Methven is primarily a farming area.

This gives a very strange feel to this forest because it’s such a narrow one we get a tonne of sunlight so being in the middle of this really thick forest but being such in a bright environment is really unique.

And one of the really cool thing of walking with Wendy which is a local of the Methven area is that she points us a lot of things that we did not know about. We see a tonne of different birds really high up in the trees. We see a tonne of different plants that we’ve never seen before and she tells us a lot of local stories.

And throughout the whole walk through the forest we notice that the walk is extremely well marked and maintained they put a lot of work and effort into it. They even built a lot of little foot bridges that pass over a very dry creek. That’s the thought that counts right?

The track leads us to the local canal which is called the Rangitata Diversion Race which helps the town get a lot of fields and farms around.

On top of that, the canal is used of hydroelectric power bringing water to the local power station but the thing that sticks out most to us is just how vibrantly blue the water is and this is because it is taken from glacial water in the Southern Alps which has sediments called Rock Flour which is suspended in the water and giving it this sort of milky colour.

Walking along the canal is definitely a highlight of the Methven Walkway. It sort of shows man’s modification of the Canterbury Plains all the while having the backdrop of the Southern Alps in the background. It looks absolutely stunning.

The walkway also provides a pretty awesome option for cyclists in the area because bikes are allowed on the walkway as well and it’s a good way to actually complete the whole 11km really quickly.

Admittedly, we don’t do the whole three hour walk because there’s actually some shorter sections to loop back round into the town which we’re gonna be doing today.

We eventually break away from the canal and start making our way back towards Methven town where we spot a guy who is shearing sheep particularly slow according to Wendy.

Wendy’s assessment.

He’s slow.

Long story short the Methven Walkway is great way to discover the surroundings around the little township of Methven. There is really heaps to do here and we got really surprised during the last five days because we really thought that there would be less for us to do.

We loved our time in Methven but it’s time to move on.

It has been mission accomplished here in Methven. Methven is known for being a ski field town. No one knows what else there is to do in this area other than go skiing in Mt Hutt or Mt Olympus or whatever is nearby but in summer we have managed to pack about five days worth of activities here. We even extended our stay here two nights because we found that there was so much here to do.