Long Ride for a Pie

A cyclist’s epic, world-crossing road trip is presented from the perspective of a base culinary urge. What is it about New Zealand that most expats and travellers miss most? Beautiful clean beaches? The majestic Southern Alps? Mum? For Tim Mulliner, after nearly four years of working in Britain, it was the experience of sinking his teeth into a proper Kiwi pie – of the sort ‘…that melted in your mouth and left tiny flakes of pastry stuck to your lips, a small shower of crumbs on your shirt, and a nice warm, satisfied feeling in the stomach’. So Tim decides to cycle home . . . to Christchurch, New Zealand, via 22 countries, 24,115 kilometres and some of the world's hairiest roads. This is the story of his epic trip. Europe's a breeze, then the hard graft kicks in in Asia. An arrest in Iran; giardia on the Karakoram Highway; landslides in Pakistan; delirium in China's 'sea of death', the vast Takalamakan Desert; attacked by dogs in Tibet; a 1000-km, week-long 'dash' across the blistering Nullabor Plain in Australia, before finally hitting home over a year later. Along the way he collected a series of unforgettable memories and superb photographs. It was a long ride for a pie.