In June/July 2021 I received a phone call from a researcher for Channel 9's top rated travel show, Getaway. I was beyond excited. Everything was in place then another wave of lockdowns in Sydney eventually made their way to the rest of NSW. Our Getaway debut was postponed.
Fast-forward to December 2021 and we were on our bikes with Tim Blackwell and the Getaway crew to showcase 'the best of Newcastle by bike'.
We spent a day filming a snapshot of our top rated tour, The Essentials x The 'Burbs. Check it out below.
Behind-the-scenes
Newy Rides has been fortunate to be part of a few different video projects and thought it would be fun to share with you a behind-the-scenes look at what happens to get the final output.
The weather forecast was looking grim and we spent a chunk of the morning under a shelter hiding from the rain, but you wouldn't be able to tell that in the final video
We hired a few BYKKO bikes (local e-bike sharing company) so the crew could ride along with us, saving their legs from a long walk out to the breakwall
Originally we were meant to ride with Catriona Rowntree back in July '21 but Tim Blackwell (of Nova FM fame) joined us on tour as the presenter for our December shoot
For the planned July '21 shoot we had a family holiday planned but postponed it so we could be part of such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - sadly lockdowns squashed this
We rode up and down the breakwall 10+ times to capture the ground footage then did it again when the drone was in the air
The Getaway crew is comprised of the host, one camera operator, a sound recordist and a producer
By the time we made it to the BBQ spot in the late afternoon it was actually our 2nd lunch. Randi's food is absolutely delicious so it was easy to go back for seconds.
In the video I described the 'rubik's cube' building as being part of City of Newcastle but in fact it's the city campus of the University of Newcastle (we call this a brain fart in the biz folks)
During the crew's visit to Newcastle they filmed a segment at Crystalbrook Kingsley and the town of Morpeth in the Hunter but these didn't get shown in the same episode
We rode down a one-way street in Islington a few times (the wrong way) to get the shot before heading to the BBQ place - lot's of weird looks from the neighbours
The other two riders on the day was my wife Astrid and good friend, Shane, who took the day off to help me out. We had to scuttle out at the end so we could pick up our little one from day care in time.
We were going to start the day/tour with a sample from our favourite winemaker but Getaway's producer feared it would come across too boozy on the TV - I tend to agree.
To experience a Newy Rides tour for yourself, check out The Essentials x The 'Burbs where we start with essential Newcastle before checking out the suburbs, where we sample some bites and delights from some of the city's best businesses.