METHVEN: AUTUMN EASTER IN A MOUNTAIN VILLAGE
- coupkovasvatava
- Apr 22, 2019
- 4 min read
In Czech where I was born Easter is a celebration of spring coming back after a long winter. In New Zealand where I am spending it this year it might seem like spring sometimes but it is already autumn. So are we actually welcoming the upcoming winter or saying bye to the leaving summer? Whatever there was on the agenda really, it meant 4 days off for me that I decided to dedicate to exploring of a completely new place. That place is called Methven and it is a small town at the foot of Mount Hutt.
To break the drive a bit we stopped in Windwhistle and went for a very nice walk to Washpen Falls where my little friend and his family joined me. The track is quite short but it is very muddy and it goes up and down but we took our time, splashed in puddles, stopped for lunch at a lookout with very nice views over the Canterbury plains and eventually made it all the way to the waterfall. And even further where there was a tiny little pond with a little boat on it and of course we could not leave until we gave it a go.
The afternoon was sunny and warm when we arrived in Methven and I took my bike for a ride around the little town. I tested a local playground and found some prickly seeds that I wanted to have in my pockets but didn´t want to put them there. Clever, aye?
It is definitely not summer anymore and it gets pretty cold at night so we do not sleep in our tent anymore. Instead we stayed with Jane and her daughters Olivia and Paige in a nice house very close to the town centre. In the evening I showed Paige how to jump on the bed and we were jumping, jumping and jumping until I got all sweaty and fell asleep.
Next morning it was cloudy but I went for a bike ride anyway and while I was taking a trip in Mount Hut Forest the sun went out and it was a nice day again. The walk was super nice, there was a lot of mud and puddles to jump into, mushrooms to look for, seeds to pick and birds to watch and listen to. In a distance I saw a snowy mountain and because mum said it is the one where we might go skiing in winter I decided I wanted to see it now. We took a drive up there and it was pretty steep and windy up there. I didn´t get to touch the snow this time but apparently I will get a chance pretty soon.
From all that walking I got so hungry that I needed to eat a delicious warm muffin served with homemade cream right away. I was lucky because they had them in a super cool café that looked like a second hand shop and it was full of old furniture, books, photos and toys to play with. Then I painted a few eggs with blow pens and jumped with Paige a bit more and that was it for the Saturday.
When I woke up on Sunday morning it was pouring rain: no walks today but something super exciting instead: for the first time in my life I was going to the cinema! Cinema Paradiso in Methven sits 35 people and they say it is probably the smallest movie theatre in New Zealand. For the first ten minutes it looked like we were going to be the only guests but then other two families joined us and finally it was 10 of us watching the Wonder Park movie. I didn´t care much that there were 4 seats for each of us, I wanted to sit on mum´s lap and I did. The movie was funny, sometimes scary and sometimes a bit sad and I managed to watch it from the beginning to the end.
When I was leaving the cinema it was raining even more than before so I went to check a local museum where there were plenty of toys and even a snow cave I could crawl into and pretend that I was stuck there. In the afternoon I put on my rain jacket and my brand new rain pants and went for a bike ride. But I hit a kerb, fell off my bike, scratched my palm and ended up in a supermarket buying plaster. The rest of the afternoon I was sitting on the couch under a blanket with Paige, who had a sore throat, and we were feeling sorry for ourselves. Life is hard sometimes.
When one is having too much fun time goes very quickly so the next morning it was already Monday and we had to go back to Christchurch. I rode around Methven on my bike for the last time, picked up a few interesting pine cones and off we went.
See you in winter, Mt Hutt.
Your Annie
