01/09/2026
Introducing Bruce Dickson
Humans of Ōpuke - a Mount Hutt College Project
I've been here in Methven for half of my life now and there's a good reason. I mean, look at the geography. You just look out the window and see it every day. Methven’s a beautiful community. You can set your goals here and the community will back you when you go out into the big wide world and get them done.
I was born in Invercargill in 1950, but I was brought up in Timaru where my mum was raised. My father was a teacher and my mum was also a teacher until I came along. My three brothers and I were very competitive. Our backyard was very small but we still played test cricket. That's where my passion for sports came from. Mum and Dad were always supportive of everything we did. My father believed sport was important because of the team's social development and team bonding, and mum encouraged us wherever we went.
I played cricket and rugby until I was about 14, then decided I wanted to play basketball instead of rugby. We didn't have a teacher as a coach but we had a keen adult basketball player. The only time we could train was at 7am and it got really cold especially in the middle of winter with no heating. By the time I was in seventh form, I was coaching one of the younger teams and at 16 I was representing the South Canterbury senior basketball team. Looking back that was probably where my passion for coaching both cricket and basketball started as well.
At school my passion for geography came because of one teacher, Bruce Osborne. He had you look at the world outside the classroom. I ended up studying geography at Canterbury University where I met Susan. I did my Geography MA thesis studying glaciation on the Ivory Glacier on the West Coast. In 1975 I started teaching at Tauranga Boys College. I coached the A Basketball Team to two national finals and coached the Bay of Plenty 3rd and 4th Form Cricket team and managed the Northern Districts Team. Shifting to Reefton in 1979 I continued my basketball and cricket coaching both at school and for Inangahua senior teams. I was also involved with the annual Social Studies, Geography trip to South Canterbury and Lilybank Station (Lake Tekapo) where I took the Methven 6th Form Geography students.
Susan and I started running lots of half marathons beginning in the 80s in Reefton then marathons from 2010. We found out people were trying to run on every continent so we thought “why not?” We have now run on six continents. We've run: New York, Paris, Rio, Norway in the midnight sun, Australia, Cambodia, Victoria Falls. Now Antarctica is the only one left. I thank Susan and my family for their support over the years as I pursued my passions.
I came to Methven in 1985 to teach at Methven High School where I found a community that got behind people. I set up the weather station, got involved with cricket coaching both at school and Mid Canterbury level plus administration, basketball coaching, snowfed and more recently playing golf and being on the committee. Teaching never really felt like a job. Whether it was geography trips to the West Coast, Lilybank, Arrowtown or setting up the weather station, I wanted the students to get out and experience what they were learning. I started Snowfed to help raise money so students could go on geography and history trips, and I loved seeing them learn outside the classroom. I'm proud of the community for supporting the Snowfed for 40 years. When I started it, we used to have club periods on a Friday afternoon. Back then, you had stencils, typewriters and gestetner printer so we were all typing on Friday afternoon.
The best advice I received was to be positive, set goals, and there's no “I” in team. When I coached cricket I always talked about the “P” words: practice, positive, perseverance, persistence, and pride. If you find something you are passionate about and you are prepared to work for it, you'll achieve more than you think. Looking back, whatever I’ve decided to do, I've been passionate about it. I think that's made all the difference.
Photo courtesy of Snowfed - Methven and Foothill's Community Paper.
