My March in Methven

Hello lovelies,

As announced in the last report, I recently spent some time in Methven in the heart of Canterbury. Even more time than originally planned. I originally wanted to stay for 2-3 weeks, but for various reasons it turned into a month. Similar to my time in Palmerston, I will not chronologically describe what I experienced, but rather try to divide it into suitable topics.

The City

As mentioned before, calling Methven a "city" is rather flattering given its population of 1700. However, the place is very tourist-oriented because the Mt Hutt ski area is only 20 kilometers away. Methven itself is not alpine at all. It is located in the Canterbury Plains and practically has no roads that go uphill or downhill 🏙 But it has four pubs, several hostels, cafes and restaurants, as well as a movie theater. And of course, two supermarkets.

The Owner

The Snow Denn Lodge, my workplace for the last four weeks, is located in the center of the small town of Methven and is run by Australian George, who is getting on in years and is a really funny guy. He comes from the Melbourne area, so on my farewell evening he even gave me some tips for my first stop on my trip to Australia. Unfortunately, he can sometimes be a bit indecisive at work and it occasionally happens that he assigns a task to you and then, five minutes after you have started, he comes to you and says, "Forget about that and follow me." Then he would have a new job for you. Confusing 😅 He also attaches great importance to certain tasks being done by certain people. For example, when someone else was vacuuming the kitchen, he came to me and said, "I want YOU to do the vacuuming. Take the vacuum off her and go on with the kitchen," or he was totally surprised when I had made the beds in my room even though he had given me that assignment and even written it down on a piece of paper 😂 But as I said, generally he is a very pleasant person who likes to have a pint with his "employees" 🍻 He calls it "Sakamori". I have no idea how the term came about. He even made a deal with Florian and Christian from our group that they can pay less rent on the condition that they bring him a case of beer every weekend 😃 He also likes to tell scary stories about people who are supposed to have died in this hostel or tries to portray the hostel cat Honey as a dangerous beast. From time to time, he also leaves us alone to run the hostel overnight. Then one of the hostel WWOOFers can check in the guests and boss around the colleagues in the morning 😉 On my last evening, he bought two cases of beer from the supermarket especially for Karen, who was also leaving the hostel, and me, and we drank them together. Great gesture 👍👌

The Other Residents

When I arrived at the hostel on that Sunday evening, I met a large part of the other long-term residents after just a few minutes, and what can I say - once again, almost all of them were Germans who had just finished school. Surprise, surprise 😆 In Methven, these were Annika, Anika, Josephine, Karen, Paul, Christoph (nickname Jesus), and Schaho at the beginning. Bella joined later. As if that wasn't enough, the two Italians Christian and Florian were also German-speaking, as they come from South Tyrol. However, when they spoke in their dialect, you still couldn't understand anything :D At the beginning, there were only Emil from Sweden and Tom from England. But over time, it became increasingly international. After a week, Paul, Schaho, and Annika left us, and Melani (BRA), Tatiana (FRA), Lizzie (USA), and a Chinese girl joined us one after the other. In addition, towards the end, I got a Finnish roommate, Jani, but he left us again after two days because he preferred to take a paid job in Ashburton. However, Christian, Florian, Jesus, Paul, Schaho, Tom, and Emil were not hostel WWOOFers, but only lived in the Snow Denn Lodge because it was close to their workplaces.

Activities

Of course, after work, when everyone gathered in the hostel, there were plenty of activities in which most of the group participated. In the evenings, we usually watched one or more movies in the lounge, but we also played board games like Monopoly, Werewolves, or card games 🐱♠💶 Every Friday, we all went to the Village Takeaway, where you can get really good food with large portions at fair prices 😋🍔🍟🍕🍗 On Saturdays, we visited the Blue Pub three times, where a live band performs every two weeks🎤🎸🎹 Especially on weekends, we also undertook larger outings, such as swimming at the beautiful Rakaia Gorge 🏊 - although I didn't go in the water because I had to deal with a bad cold throughout my first week - or going to Geraldine for football golf ⚽⛳ By the way, this was the first time I played anything resembling football since my departure. During the time when Paul was still with us, we also went basketball playing 🏀 But unfortunately, Paul took the only basketball we had in the hostel, so that didn't last long 😢 I also went to the A&P Show with Emil, Jani, Jesus, and Karen. I had already visited a similar festival in Palmerston and was surprised at how much bigger it was in Methven, especially since Palmerston has a few more inhabitants. But there, the show was kept very family-friendly, while in Methven it was more commercial. Grandstands had even been set up. Unfortunately, the show took place on a day with really bad and cold weather. The days before had been really summery, and the same was true for the following day. Only on that Saturday, you had to wade through thick mud wearing thick jackets. But it was still worth going 😊 In the end, there was even a small rodeo competition. Otherwise, the program was similar to Palmerston, just bigger and with more spectators.

In my spare time, I took a walk here and there, including walking the Methven Walkway, which was not particularly spectacular. I also read from time to time, watched movies, took a little nap after work... and of course, wrote on my blog 😉

The Hostel

The Snow Denn Lodge is located on the outskirts of Methven City (yes, I'm making the city a bit bigger 😜). From the outside, you can already see the telling sign: "The best hostel in town." And as a guest, you can't really complain. The hostel is large and consists of two identical houses with a large kitchen, common room, rooms with up to four beds, and two showers and bathrooms each. It also has a nice, large garden that has become my best friend over time 😉 More about that now.

The Work

During my time in Methven, a total of 15 hours per week were worked. These were divided into 5 days with 3 hours each, so you always had two days completely free. The working hours were mostly gender-specific. While the girls were responsible for room service, kitchen work, window cleaning, vacuuming, and laundry, my main area of ​​responsibility was outside the four walls of the hostel. This included not only taking out the garbage daily but also weeding, watering flowers and plants, picking up smaller pieces of trash, collecting fallen flex blades, stacking and fetching wood for the oven, raking, and cleaning the shed (including window cleaning). But from time to time, I was also allowed to help indoors. In the kitchen, it was sometimes a bit annoying because many guests had not washed their dishes and you had to do it for them. We had to respond to an unplanned assignment when a person from our team used the washing machine, which was known to be damaged, yet still managed to turn the entire second building into a swimming pool 😣 The laundry room was completely flooded, so we had to immediately move the washing machine and dryer outside, and the carpet was so soaked that water splashed up when you walked on it 😆 We spontaneously took several towels from the laundry and spread them on the floor, then trampled on them (someone should have filmed that 😂) and repeatedly wrung out the towels outside. Fortunately, George (standard phrase: "I don't like problems") was away at that time and did not see the catastrophe in its full extent. Although he probably would have taken it somewhat lightly 😎 By the way, at the end, George praised me several times and emphasized that he was very satisfied with me. It doesn't get much better than that 🙌👍

That's it from my month in Methven. After my farewell evening, I stayed in the town until early afternoon the next day in order to take the shuttle directly to Christchurch Airport. This was to be the last thing I saw in New Zealand for the time being, as my trip to Australia, which I had booked during my time in Methven, was imminent. You will find out how my first days there went in the next report 😊

Until then,

your Max