Roadrunner hits the road, sadly

MARION VAN DIJK/Nelson Mail

Ouch: Larry Spitz picks up the pieces of The Roadrunner, a tapestry rack he built, after it fell off his truck on its way home from being shown in an exhibition.

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After watching his latest woodwork creation fall from the back of his truck on to State Highway 6, Larry Spitz has been forced to appreciate the irony of calling his piece The Roadrunner.

Mr Spitz had spent months working on the tapestry rack for his wife, and named it after the popular television cartoon show The Road Runner Show, in which one of the characters, a hungry coyote, continually comes to grief in his pursuit of a road-running bird.

Mr Spitz was finally taking his Roadrunner home on Thursday when the unbelievable happened: it fell from the truck near the Tui Glen turnoff and splintered into pieces.

A student at the Centre for Fine Woodworking, Mr Spitz had exhibited the piece at the Refinery Gallery along with other work created by staff and students for the centre's 2008 show.

He joked that the Centre for Fine Woodworking had, in this case, been more of a "centre for firewood".

Although the rack had taken months of hard work, Mr Spitz was pleased it had at least been enjoyed by visitors to the exhibition before it was smashed.

His wife was understandably disappointed about The Roadrunner's mishap but Mr Spitz said she was also sympathetic. "You can't get too upset about these things," he said.

Mr Spitz had covered The Roadrunner with blankets on the back of his truck and was taking it home after celebrating the end of the exhibition with fellow students -- who ended up helping him pick up bits of wood from the highway.

- © Fairfax NZ News