Murray Neill: Xtracycling

Some more of yesterday

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:23:06 GMT

Xtracycle Cleaning Day

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:29:14 GMT

I've been meaning to clean my bike for weeks now. In fact it hasn't been properly cleaned since I got back from my East Cape trip. A clean bike is a healthy bike. There just hasn't been any fine days on the weekends for a while, and it's not nice cleaning it when its already cold and wet outside. Anyway... yesterday I got around to it, and as usual I took some photos of my steed.

Halfway home

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:48:05 GMT

231 Bike Parking

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 07:03:57 GMT

Xtracycles at Tui Station

Wed, 28 May 2008 07:45:42 GMT

2 thirds of Nelson's Xtracycle population out for a cruise on Sunday afternoon.

This cute little building is the latest addition to the Founder's Park historic railway here in Nelson. The track only runs a kilometer or two around the park and has three little historic stations installed now. The train does joy rides each weekend. Tui Station is at the Northern end of the park next to Miyazu Gardens and is quite photogenic. Would be a nice location for some people shots.

A couple of snaps from my bike ride home

Tue, 27 May 2008 07:58:50 GMT

A white-faced Heron reflected in the surface of Nelson Haven.

Nelson Central Post Office in the last of the evening sun.

Monday Morning

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:15:40 GMT

The sunrise as I biked through Hira this morning.

East Cape Camping

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 23:17:49 GMT

The East Cape camp ground consists of a large mowed paddock with a dodgy looking long-drop in one corner, and a single freshwater tap in the middle. The sparse facilities didn't bother me, in fact, I kind of liked it. The beach, the swimming hole, and the expansive views made my stay here the best 'day-off' of my trip. I spent a day just walking and riding the beach, visiting the lighthouse, and swimming in the un-naturally warm swimming hole at the small river mouth (visable in this shot). I did my laundry under the tap, and dried it hanging on bits of driftwood poked into the sandy ground. Because the water was delivered via a long black hose that snaked several hundred meters across the paddock, and it was in full sun all day, each time I used the tap I got a couple of minutes worth of hot water. I was the only one tenting there that day so the hot water was all mine... so was the beach. I wished I had a kite with me, but I did have my camera...

Lake Tutira

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:42:23 GMT

Just north of Napier is little lake Tutira. It was a great find during my cycle-tour. There is free camping on its shores. Being on a bike I got the best spot in the place. A grassy little bluff under huge oak tree that the buses and camper vans couldn't drive to. I rode my bike up there through the trees, and pitched my tent so I got this exact view from my tent door.

The lake was bursting with bird-life including more black swans than I could count.

I had an early start the next morning and when I was packing up the lake was covered in a thick mist. The mist began to break up and lift, and the sun leaked through as I rode around the western shoreline to continue my journey north (into some of the meanest hills I encountered the whole 3 weeks on the road.)

The Rimutaka Rail Trail

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:48:46 GMT

The Rimutaka Rail Trail was one of the highlights of my bike tour up north. It came as a welcome break from state highway 2. The trail is only 18km but the points of interest along the way, like bridges, tunnels, old station platforms, and good signage, made it seem longer.

The Xtracycle after riding though the Summit Tunnel built around 1877. It is 576m long and kind of scary to ride through.

The way up, from the South was a gentle, sometimes winding, incline typical of most railway routes. The descent of the northern side was something else entirely. A white knuckle ride all the way to the platform at Cross Creek. I took a moment at the bottom to check the xtracycle over. All loaded up on a fast rocky descent like that must be near the limits of what the bike and free radical can handle. I half expected to find some sort of damage, but the rig handled it fine. The final leg was a 20 min technical little single-line walking track through manuka forest.With all the weight loaded low, keeping my center of gravity well below my knees somewhere, the xtracycle not only handled this track fully loaded, it excelled, even one the slow tricky bits.

Pakuratahi Bridge - 1876; 28m long, this is a "Howe" truss bridge. It is the oldest truss bridge in New Zealand, and was rebuilt in 1910 after a fire.

Pakuratahi Tunnel - built in 1876 and 73m long, this was the first concrete block structure in New Zealand. It was curved so you couldn't see the other end when you entered.... creepy.

A welcome sight.

East Cape lighthouse

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:34:23 GMT

I'm home, safe & sound... and I've been to the most easterly lighthouse in the world on my bike. 1974 kilometers there and back. It is good to be home.

Gone pedaling

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:13:40 GMT

Below are the latest 10 shot taken with my mobile phone during my Nelson to East Cape Xtracycle tour. I'm probably missing work terribly and having a horrible time ;)

Click through to my flickr account to see more... photos are tagged with Nelson-EastCapeCycleTour2008. See y'all in a few weeks!

www.flickr.com

More of murrayneill's photos tagged with Nelson-EastCapeCycleTour2008

liberation and pilgrimage and adventure

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 22:09:24 GMT

"The truest and most horrible claim made for modern transport is that it 'annihilates space'. It does. It is a vile inflation which lowers the value of distance, so that a modern boy travels a hundred miles with less sense of liberation and pilgrimage and adventure than his grandfather got from traveling ten. Of course, if a man hates space and wants it to be annihilated, that is another matter. Why not creep into his coffin at once? There is little enough space there." - C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

I'm leeeeaving, on a longbike.

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:21:53 GMT

I talked about it last year, earlier in the summer. Now here we are in autumn and I'm getting ready to go on my three week bike ride to the East Cape of NZ's North Island. My four-legged companion, Kaycee is staying with my parents this time partly because I want to travel lighter, but mostly because she's getting a bit old for it. At 16, going on 17 she's not as fit and agile as she used to be and tends to sleep a lot more. I fear another trip like this (after last years 6 week 'round the south' trip) might be a bit much for her. She'll be pampered while I'm gone, I'm sure.

I'll be updating here by the way of photos taken on my phone, just like last time. I'll post that widget just before I leave this afternoon. For now I've got a tube to change, a chain to lube, some bags to pack, and a bike to load.

The Pinecone Express

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 07:25:41 GMT

Camp Kitchen

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:03:23 GMT

I decided about an hour before sunset yesterday, that I would load up the Xtracycle, dog and all, and go for an overnight camp... somewhere. I ended up on the other side of the Wangamoa range pitching the tent and cooking dinner by the light of failing headlight batteries, at Grahams Stream Reserve. Dinner was goooood.

Wakapuaka this morning

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:53:02 GMT

The days are getting shorter, the mornings cooler, and darker. I'm now donning full finger gloves and my jacket for my morning commute, and the lights are on the bike because I'm leaving in the dark.

The silver lining is that I get to absorb the sunrise each morning during my 60 minute pedal to work. Its the best part of my day.

Controls

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:02:19 GMT

Haven Road Cyclist Trap

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:36:30 GMT

The road works on Haven Road this week has turned into a dead end for bicycle traffic.

New Cruiser Handbars for the Xtracycle

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 09:27:33 GMT

The Middle of Town

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:27:43 GMT

My first attempt at some seriously urban kite aerial photography. This is the very center of Nelson's Business District. The Nelson Central Post Office building and clock tower is (imho) one of the ugliest, but it's ours. Even though its been there for a couple of decades (give or take), I think most Nelsonians are still wondering when they are going to finish building the tower and take the scafolding down. My kite in the middle of town attracted quite a few curious spectators. The camera was directly over the busiest intersection in town, but all safety checks had been down and the wind was steady and strong.

The suburb by the city. Just across the Maitai River is "The Wood". That's Neale Park in the distant background where we had our kite festival a couple of weeks ago.

You can see me in this picture flying my kite from the Maitai River bank, next to the bridge. That's my friend Ted on his Xtracycle crossing the bridge (my Xtracycle is parked just off-camera on the river bank, having transported me and all my KAP gear to the location). I didn't know he was there but he had followed my kiteline to say hello. It often happens when I'm KAPing; someone I know will spot my kite and find me. Kind of a neat spin-off of the activity.

I like this intersection because I am a cyclist and cyclists get priority here (at least from one direction), as the green lanes show. We're ALLOWED to queue-jump and when the light goes green, we get to go first. Nahhh-na-na-nah-na! I think it's a bit of an experiment to see if it works. I hope it catches on.

Trafalger Park Panorama (and other KAP missions)

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:23:03 GMT

It's kite aerial photography season. There are lovely, steady sea-breezes every day now. This week I've set my self the goal to at least try and do some KAP everyday to build up my portfolio. It's Thursday morning and so far I've had two successful flights and two aborted attempts (one due to not setting exposure correctly before launch, and one due to not enough wind). By far the most successful flight so far, for me, is the four shot panorama of Trafalger Park above. I'm pretty stoked with it. The full image is nearly 8000 pixels across and has heaps of detail (if you are a Flickr member you can download full size image and check it out). The reason I wanted to shoot this location in the first place was this....

...Should be a great concert, although I won't be able to see it directly from my launch site. I'm hoping to get another shot of the park but this time with an event in full swing. (BTW all my KAP gear is on the Xtracycle in this shot, including 4 kites, 1000 feet of line, winder, backstrap, two cameras, and the KAP aerial rig, and hand held controller. Compact aye? Lets see ya do that with a helium blimp!)

Another shoot I did on Sunday was a location I've explored before, but I revisited purely for fun. It is a lovely place to fly. Lots of room, and very smooth winds. Wakapuaka Sand Flats. This time I attempted to get enough shots to stitch together 360 degree interactive panorama. I got the shots... and I'm halfway through the stitching process, so look out for a new QTVR to download soon. I got some other nice shots too. The colours of this landscape are quite dramatic from the air and they change with the seasons.

I like KAP shots like the one above that include the kite line and flyer. Many KAP photographers go to great lengths to remove these from their images. I like to leave them in as a bit of added interest, and to supplement a touch of vertigo. I'm in the Trafalger Park panorama shot too, although it's like a game of "Where's Wally?".

I hope to get out again today for more photos. The breeze is already teasing the tops of the pines on the ridge and the sky is blue from horizon to horizon. Ahhh, summer.

A cartoon day

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 06:20:52 GMT

Almost home

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:06:06 GMT

near the end of the daily commute with a weeks groceries in the bags.

Xtracycle glamour shot

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 06:43:03 GMT

Devon has upgraded the front end of his Xtracycle with a 2008 model Bauer Bravo complete with disk brakes, and matching colour scheme (which he insists was accidental... yeah right. He only bought it for the colours).