Posts by Moz
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Polity: Leaving only footprints, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
If the routes were less well marked, you'd need to think about what you were up to and carry a map and compass, right?
Nope. I have run round in the hills looking for people on occasion, too many of whom were wearing beach attire in mountainous areas when the weather changed. Very rarely do those expeditions target people who are well equipped and sensible (and those are usually the happy ones, as well. You wander round until you find a bunch of people camped somewhere obvious waiting for the river to go down, or the medical team to arrive, or whatever).
But you know, the other 99.99% of the time everyone has a good time and the only injuries are due to the ferocious wildlife... sandflies, mussels, keas and such.
-
Polity: Leaving only footprints, in reply to BenWilson,
A recumbent bike. I don't really count anything with a pacer vehicle or going downhill as truly self powered. But you're saying it wasn't a tricycle, specifically, right?
Now you're making things complicated. The International Human Powered Vehicle Association have a list of speed records that they certify but you'll note that a lot of them take place at Battle Mountain, which has enough slope to give the faster riders about 200W of gravity assistance (compared to 500-700W of rider input). If we restrict records to level courses we need to do a lot more research and probably use a list of country-by-county local speed records.
That list also has the trike speed records, currently 117.38kph for a trike vs 139.45kph for a bike. The TriSled trike people are in Melbourne and I know both Ben and Gareth (and own a few of their more conventional bikes). The trike is tiny, it's almost painted onto the rider, who sits scrunched up in an incredibly uncomfortable position (to reduce frontal area and thus air resistance).
-
Polity: Leaving only footprints, in reply to BenWilson,
Nah, fastest HPV is a bike, and not one that's easy for even a sighted person to ride. But the glee you see from blind people when they get to drive a trike is hard to overstate. Especially for someone who just has impossibly foggy vision, the ability to go screaming round a carpark under their own steam and in control of the vehicle is a huge win.
And free camping in Oz is pretty much the way everyone does it, because in the outback there's no reason not to or way to stop people who want to. There really is an awful lot of out there, out there. In the more inhabited areas they have rest stops with tank water and pit (or tank) toilets, and there are more of those every year on the heavily trafficked areas. I was somewhat surprised that out round Uluru there are tanks everywhere and it's possible to cycle tour with only a few litres of carrying capacity (insane, but possible).
Stealth camping in the peopled-up coastal zones is easy if you have the skiills and gear. It looks a bit like this
http://moz.geek.nz/mozbike/ride/nz-2005/01-21-cromwell/nztour-cromwell-02-moz_.jpg
(no idea how to embed the image, sorry)
-
Polity: Leaving only footprints, in reply to BenWilson,
I met a blind bloke in Timaru who was very excited to hear about tandem recumbent trikes, as his wife found the upright bike version quite hard to deal with (him being the bigger, heavier member of the team). They put me up for the night after chatting me up me at the library, and we shared experiences of disabled people and outdoor adventures. He was amused at the idea of carrying a wheelchair up mountains, but much more excited about getting a recumbent trike to play with. Despite knowing of a local manufacturer he'd never clicked to the idea that because he couldn't fall off that meant he could ride even a solo trike, he just needed someone to scream "stop!" at him before he hit something. But obviously a tandem would be better because he could have a sighted driver.
-
Polity: Leaving only footprints, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
So many tourists don't pay, won't pay and share tips on how to avoid paying. Get them at the border.
That. See also "freedom campers", otherwise known as "shit everywhere" campers. Although I have to admit it is another case of the problematic few giving the other 1% a bad name.
I frequently am one of the "freedom campers" and have been for a long time. The subtle difference is that I stealth camp and it's usually hard to know I've been there (occasionally I leave bike tyre tracks that are really obvious). It's not hard to do, and I have a great deal of experience with shitting in the woods (a poo shovel is necessary), and also sponge bathing in the sinks of public toilets (unfortunately necessary now that the rivers of shit are so often unsafe for that type of contact between body and water).
-
Polity: Leaving only footprints, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
The hut ticket system works OK where there are hut wardens (who are usually volunteers). ... Why would you do that whilst at the same time pouring massive subsidies into the tourist industry
That's a really good point. I'd much rather see DoC get a fee per tourist entering the country than have chunks of central Auckland given to rich people. Or "tracks of national significance" given the same priority and guarantees as "roads of futility".
I've been a hut volunteer once and it was awful. Turns out I'm not really into people in the required way, I spent two weeks wishing the noisy fuckers (wouldn't that be a great name for a bird species) would just go away and leave me alone. And stop shitting in the woods.
(munged the quotes from Carol and Rich together)
-
Aroha Harawira at Orcon IRL was interesting, the video is on utoob and worth listening to (it has talking heads if you're into that, too).
-
Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Lilith __,
Dan Clemerson-Phillips is doing that via Twitter for the legalise-rape arseholes
The anti-fash groups here are doing the same. We're kinda used to fronting up in potentially violent situations, and I suspect the pro-rape people are going to be a lot less physically threatening than the white power ones. It would be quite amusing in a way to convince the white power people that the pro-rape ones are foreign darkies coming here to rape their women (all those terms used advisedly, if perhaps somewhat understated from their usual language).
-
I'm with the "if you see something say something" crowd on this. Step up and get in the way if you see it, boys. Yeah, the aggressors might decide to start a fight with you if they can't torment a woman... but at least the bouncers know what a fight looks like and are usually willing to put a stop to it.
FWIW I've seen Urthboy stop the music and ask security to remove an unpleasant male from the front row, and when his female accomplice objected she was made to accompany him (I assume they were booted out, but it was ~30s of an excellent gig and I was up the front having a good time, not following people to make sure they left). I expect Hermitude would have done the same, because it seems to be more of a thing in Sydney (or perhaps just with Elefant Tracks). But the ripping clothes off women is something I haven't seen at a gig I've been at, at all. Admittedly from a small sample, and I prefer less raucous gigs. I'm used to it just being lots of shoving, and weird space-taking "dancing" that jiggles the less aggressive out of the mosh pit.
-
Hard News: The CRL and the nature of change, in reply to Ben Ross,
The main issues come to the Unitary Plan herself (executing it)
Oh, National would like to execute the Unitary Plan, all right. A quick blow to the back of the head on a quiet night and no-one will be any the wiser.