the recently opened shared path<\/a> when he crashed into a large rock in the middle of the lane. <\/p>\n\u201cThe next thing you know, I\u2019m lying on the ground going, \u2018Oh what\u2019s this about?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI turned around and I saw the rock lying there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fall left him with a grazed elbow, a grazed hip, sore hands and a punctured front tyre.<\/p>\n
He soon realised there were several boulders and a large log that had been placed on the path, which is used by cyclists and pedestrians.<\/p>\n
Townsley estimated the rocks ranged from 25-40cm in size and weighed up to 8kg, which led him to believe they had been intentionally moved on to the path by people overnight. <\/p>\n
An NZTA spokesman confirmed the agency\u2019s cameras \u201chave captured footage related to this incident\u201d and it had been provided to police.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the matter has been referred to police we\u2019re not in a position to provide further details at this stage,\u201d he told the Herald.<\/p>\n
![\"In]()
In addition to large rocks, a log was pulled on to the cycle lane of the Te Ara Tupua shared path.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t like cyclists, that\u2019s okay, but you don\u2019t go out to hurt people \u2013 that\u2019s just malicious,\u201d Townsley said.<\/p>\n
In an earlier statement to the Herald, NZTA confirmed it was aware of the incident, which appeared to be vandalism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are extremely disappointed by this, given the danger it poses to shared path users.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ngauranga to Petone shared path has been enjoyed by thousands of people since it opened last month and it is deeply frustrating that anyone would choose to behave in such a way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also want to thank other path users for clearing the debris and helping to keep the route safe for the public.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Photos]()
Photos of the debris were posted to Facebook group Cycle Wellington by Clarke Townsley’s wife Kirsten.<\/p>\n
Townsley\u2019s wife, Kirsten, posted on a local Facebook cycling page to warn others about the debris. <\/p>\n
She believed people who attended the Hurricanes game at Hnry Stadium on Saturday night may have been the ones to move the rocks while walking the path on their way home.<\/p>\n
Kirsten said the boulders were placed in dark patches not illuminated by lights on the pathway, leading some commenters to question if the path needed better lighting.<\/p>\n
Townsley did not take issue with the pathway lighting, which he described as \u201cpassive\u201d, but admitted his own cycle lights had no chance of catching the boulders before it was \u201ctoo late\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said of all the people who passed him on the path that morning, only one runner helped him move the stones.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t [clear the path], if you\u2019re expecting someone else to do it, that is just a recipe for disaster,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Janhavi Gosavi is a Wellington-based journalist for the New Zealand Herald who covers news in the capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAs part of our initial inquiries, police are reviewing CCTV footage,\u201d they told the Herald. Police are asking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[33846,682,16637,41220,9260,160572,23676,19473,305,10933,37601,10497,111,43,139,69,16488,675,8244,23940,63502,45608,1361,3946,241260,26995,52],"class_list":["post-479529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-along","tag-being","tag-cameras","tag-capture","tag-captured","tag-cycleway","tag-cyclist","tag-footage","tag-have","tag-injured","tag-inquiry","tag-mounted","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nzta","tag-police","tag-recent","tag-related","tag-route","tag-sparking","tag-that","tag-traffic","tag-tupua","tag-vandalism","tag-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}