Southern Cross Lodge is a hotel on Racecourse Avenue in Methven, in the Ashburton District of mid-Canterbury, with its own website for enquiries. A good country hotel in a town like Methven does more than put a roof over travellers: it doubles as the district's living room, where farmers, skiers and passing trampers end up at the same bar. Mt Hutt sets the rhythm of the year, so the sharp operators run early breakfasts, dry out wet gear overnight and know the state of the mountain road before anyone has to ask. Winter weekends book out well ahead; in summer the same beds fill with anglers and walkers drawn by the braided rivers nearby. The surest sign of a proper small-town hotel is that locals drink there too. Racecourse Avenue sits handy to both the racecourse and the road up the hill, which in Methven is about as central as an address gets.