Leak friends out riding before the fall

Michael Ryan and Peter Garty joined a posse of cyclists for a ride near Upper Hutt's Moonshine Rd on Sunday - just two days before Wellington's best-kept secret, and a stern test of their friendship, was revealed to the nation.

Fellow cyclists say they were "gobsmacked" when State Services Commissioner Mark Prebble exposed Mr Ryan as the Beehive messenger who had leaked the Telecom unbundling document to Mr Garty, referred to as "Garts" by those close to him.

Memories are blurred as to whether the two men, fully aware of what was about to explode, cycled side by side that day.

One mutual friend of the pair says: "I never saw them together actually."

There were 60 or 70 cyclists there - "It's a pretty big group."

The cyclist - one of a number of Wellington movers and shakers - is one of many who rallied behind both men yesterday, particularly Mr Ryan, whose friends believe his motives were genuinely well-intentioned, if completely "silly".

"There's not a shadow of doubt in my mind [that this was] nothing more than helping out a mate, innocent and stupid as it sounds."

As Dr Prebble said on Tuesday: "There's a human aspect to this story and that's the sad bit.

"This will really test their personal relationship, in fact I can't think of anything more testing to be frank."

Mr Garty, understood to be the cousin of former Labour MP and now Canadian High Commissioner Graham Kelly, is at work, as he has been all the way through the inquiries.

"I think he's pretty shaken up about it, " said one of Mr Garty's friends. "He seemed to have lots of sessions with the lawyers over the last week, so it's been pretty intensive."

Mr Ryan - son-in-law of the late Sir John Robertson, a former top civil servant and Chief Ombudsman - went to ground on Tuesday, presumably to avoid the media. His house is deserted.

"He'll be gutted, devastated ... I suspect he's just about as low as you can go," the mutual friend said, echoing the sentiments of others spoken to.

While Mr Ryan was undeniably wrong to show him the document, some friends of the pair are privately wondering whether Mr Garty took the appropriate path - the road from which there was no return.

"There is a view which says often when you get information you shouldn't have, you should just say 'this is a conversation we should never have had'. That's the question on people's minds," one says.

"Why breach the caveat you were given 'for your eyes only'?

"It wasn't even to help Telecom, it was actually to help Peter. That's the issue really, why did you do that?"

Despite the questions, "Friends are rallying around and no one is forming a judgment, they're just focused on supporting these guys."

Mr Garty's friend suggests if anyone should be annoyed it's Mr Garty, "but he's optimistic".

"Garts is a sort of larger than-life character at times, but I doubt he's the sort of person who holds grudges."