The Long Ride Home

We had less than a week until we flew home from Frankfurt and had planned to stop off in Stuttgart on the way. The highlight for me was definitely the Schweine (pig) musuem which I managed to drag Dave along to. I used to avidly collect all sorts of pig toys and ornaments as a child, and pigs are still my favourite animal. This museum had originally started as a personal collection and this was a perfect demonstration of when a quirky collection transforms into just plain crazy. Maybe it's for the best that my own collection has been stored away in boxes for the past ten years..

Schweine (pig) musuem

We were staying in a (rather dingy) campground right next to the beer festival, so we spent the evening wandering round the fairgrounds and enjoying the atmosphere. This would be our last night camping on this trip and the morning ritual of packing up the campsite was rather bittersweet. We headed off to the Mercedes Benz museum which was surprisingly interesting and we enjoyed the morning looking at all the different cars through the ages.
We caught a train to Frankfurt, where we would spend the last few days packing, cleaning our gear, doing a bit of shopping and some exploring around the town. We were looking forward to getting home and the weather seemed to be getting colder every day, so these days flew past in a blur.

Site of book burning during the Nazi era in Frankfurt

We were very close to our goal of 8000 km and we officially passed over the threshold during a short ride between accommodation. We were pretty chuffed with ourselves as one of our original goals had been to bike over 4000 km - we had achieved double this!

8000km!

Obligatory selfie!

Before we knew it, it was time to head to the airport and start the long journey home. We set off from Frankfurt and after stopping in Dubai, Bangkok, Sydney and Christchurch, getting stung with excess baggage, dealing with a fainting fellow passenger and going through four separate security screenings we eventually made it back to Christchurch in one piece. We were tired but glad to be back on New Zealand soil and very happy to be greeted by the Shearers at the airport. After a long drive to Oamaru and a very nice cup of tea with my parents, we were well and truly ready for bed.

- Sarah