[4] The town is a service centre for agriculture in the surrounding area, and is a base for skiing at the nearby Mount Hutt skifield.

[5] In 1869, Robert Patton purchased a 500 acres (200 ha) farm property and called it Methven, after the name of his old home town in Perthshire, Scotland.

Sections in the township were offered for sale by public auction on 24 June 1878 at South Rakaia, and sold for between 20 and 95 pounds.

By the time that Robert Patton died on 20 October 1889,[10] Methven had a butcher, baker, grocer, draper and a blacksmiths, in addition to the hotel.

He was initially the manager of a large 21,000 acres (8,500 ha) property called Springfield, employing 100 men through the year, and 200 during harvesting.

In the 1920s Methven slowly changed from having livery stables and smithies to garages and engineering firms to service cars and farm machinery.

Trucking firms also aimed to compete with the railways to ship farm goods such as wool to the ports.

Farm labourers frequented the grocery stores, clothing retailer, pubs, billiard halls, brothels, and boarding houses that were present in Methven in the early days of the town.

For the first 100 years of Methven's existence, its primary role was that of servicing the needs of farmers and farm labour.

[17] The Ashburton District Council is responsible for providing local government services to Methven.

[22] Snow falls a few days each year in Methven in the winter months of June, July and August.

[5][24][25] The Mount Hutt Memorial Hall (160 Main Street, Methven) contains the New Zealand Alpine & Agriculture Encounter.

[27] In 1971, the Methven Lions Club studied whether Mount Hutt could be developed into a ski field.

Although the majority of skiers usually made the journey to Mount Hutt from Christchurch on a daily basis, some would stay the weekend in Methven and need accommodation, dinner and services.

Development continued and by 1989 Methven had five hotels, three motels, twenty ski lodges, two camping grounds and nine restaurants.

A number of cafes, bars, and restaurants lie relatively dormant over the summer months, but become busy during the ski season.

[37] Local walks include: The start of the Rakaia Gorge Walkway is an 11-kilometre drive from Methven.

The track is 10.4 kilometres there and back which will take the average walker three to four hours to complete the return journey.

The Mount Hutt Bike Park is home to 30 kilometres of trails that are within five minutes of Methven.

[41][42] The Methven Rodeo is held annually in October each year and attendances can exceed 6000 people.

[43] Events include Barrel Racing, Bull Riding, Saddle Bronc, Steer Wrestling and Team Roping.

[49] The Brown Pub was originally built in 1883 but was destroyed by fire on 19 June 1922 and subsequently rebuilt.

The building was classified as a Category 2 historic place and registered on the New Zealand Heritage List in October 2019.

The main canal is 67 km long, and passes to the west and north of Methven township.

The RDR project was the first major river diversion in New Zealand, and the largest irrigation scheme in the country.

[59][60] Methven also served as a base to cast and crew for the filming of Edoras (located further inland at Mt Sunday[37]), for The Lord of the Rings.

[61][5] The cast and crew of the movie Z for Zachariah stayed in Methven in February and March 2014 while shooting scenes at Washpen Falls near Windwhistle.

After a party at the Blue Pub in Methven, Hollywood actor Chris Pine was caught drink-driving by police.

[62][63] During the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown in New Zealand, Lynda from the Topp Twins and her wife Donna played music from the back of their truck on the way to the supermarket to bring some fun into peoples lives in Methven.

[64] The Mountain Thunder motorcycle street race was an annual event held in Methven on Easter Saturday for eight years until 2017.