Time: 3 hours and 15 minutes (includes dilly dallying)
Distance: 12.45 km
Start: Methvyn i-Hub, 160 Main Street Methvyn.
Finish: Same place (it's a loop)
Date: Friday 17th February 2023
The Methvyn Walkway is a pleasant, flat, 12 km loop that encircles Methvyn township via a series of tracks through farms, under shelter belts and alongside the Rangitata Diversion Canal. There is also a small amount of walking along busyish country roads. The track can be mountain biked - although you would have to negotiate a few turn-styles. Today we were walking in an anti-clockwise direction. A pretty good map and description can be downloaded as a pdf here.
We parked at the Methvyn i-Hub (information center) on Main Street, chatted to the woman at the desk, had a wee, grabbed a map, checked out the art and stepped out the door. From the i-Hub, the walkway goes down Chertsey Road which, despite verbal directions from the woman at the desk, the NZ Map app and Google maps, we had the utmost difficulty finding and had to ask a local who immediately pointed us in the right direction.
Five minutes walk down the busyish Chertsey Road, we turned left through the iron gates and crossed the Methvyn Cemetery to Barkers Road and into the Piwakawaka/Fairy Forest - a small path winding through a shelter belt of pines. Local children (and adults) had painted wooden piwakawakas and fairy paraphernalia and stuck them to the trees all the way along the path. Kind of unenvironmental and OTT but also quite sweet and quirky.
The Piwakawaka Forest merged into the Enchanted Forest. We crossed the flowery bridge where the path runs alongside a farm paddock. About 30 sheep and a couple of llamas were grazing in the field but one poor ewe was laying flat on her side by the gate closest to us. Not dead but obvious requiring either a rescue or a mercy killing. A cute ram with a black head -like something out of Wallace and Grommet (only with balls) - was trying to either maul her with his hooves or save her or bonk her (or all of the above). That all looked too painful and we knew we had to do something. The problem was that this was all playing out on the other side of an electric fence.
I threw a couple of light pine cones in the (more or less) general direction of the ram to get him to stop his violence but he didn't take any notice (my aim was fairly appalling). Then I held grass against the top wire of the fence. Live. But the others underneath were ok and I quickly crawled through, shooed away the ram and patted the ewe on the head and told her everything would be ok (I wasn't remotely certain of that though).
Linda crawled through the fence too, followed by Carolien who suddenly gave out the almightiest of screams. Electrocution. She must have touched the top wire. The ewe flinched at the scream and her eyes were wide with terror and her breathing fast. Nicole was ringing the i-Hub to contact the farmer and Carolien was rubbing a strange red mark that had appeared on her lower arm.
We gathered around the ewe and I told her what the plan was. With a "one", "two" "three" we hoisted her up. She was lighter than expected. The plan was to hold her steady until she found her feet but she immediately bounded away with the most amazing strength and agility. Thoughts of the mercy killing quickly dissipated as she joined the ram and the 30 other sheep and the two llamas.
Feeling so happy at this unexpected turn of events, we crawled back through the fence one by one, being so-oh-so careful not to touch the top wire. First Carolien, then me, then Linda. But when it was my turn, a terrific jolt went through my hand, down my ulna and exited at my elbow joint. I saw a white flash, heard a crack and smelt burning rubber. Electrocution. I checked for fires and noticed a strange red mark on my elbow and possibly a few singed hairs.
Linda wisely chose an alternative route of return to the enchanted forest. One that involved a complicated opening and shutting of farmyard gates and a shimmying through of a barbed wire fence whilst kneeling on a thistle. The ram and the 30 ewes and the two llamas watched from the distance. Once back on safe ground Linda summed it all up for us #citygals: "That's the closest I've ever been to a farm animal." Nicole phoned the i-Hub back to let them know of the rescue. I was recalling how me and my hoa rangitira had cooked Moroccan Lamb Tagine for eleven people last Sunday (the irony of this was not lost upon me) and Carolien was speculating that our electric shock treatment might actually be beneficial for our dicky knees (think bee stings vs arthritis).
We exited the enchanted forest and arrived at the path running alongside the Rangitata Diversion Canal. The canal runs between the Rangitata and Rakaia rivers and provides local communities with irrigation in the summer and power in the winter. The water in the canal is as blue as blue can be. Probably glacier fed.
After all that excitement we needed to stop for paramanawa. We sat on the park bench overlooking the canal, munching on apples and nuts and pondering the pithy questions of life: What makes cider cider? And what exactly is Gods loop hole? Nicole supplied hand sanitiser to take the ewe germs off our fingers (#citygals) and I contemplated a swim in the canal. I had my togs but yeah nah.
The track went for a long time along the canal. This would be a stunning winter walk with snow on the distant mountains. Today was late summer with low cloud over the hills. The yellow of the hay bales contrasted nicely with the turquoise blue water of the canal. A bucolic setting.
The last part of the walk is along the busyish Pudding Hill Road and then around the edge of the golf course via Hobbs Road. We contemplated going through the golf course and peeked through the hedge but couldn't be sure of the exit. Once back in Methvyn, we headed straight to Primo e Secundo, an establishment that wonderfully doubles as a cafe and a second hand shop. We had coffees and hot chocolates and other yummy victuals and checked out the bric-a-brac. Carolien bought a $5, 100 year-old book all about chickens and eggs for a friend of hers who's into that sort of thing. I felt a little envious as I imagine it could be essential reading for #citygals.
