71 hours and 50,000 kilometres?

That’s how much flying I’ll be doing if I go with the latest itinerary I’ve worked out for the London trip. That’s a lot of flying! (There goes any pretensions I have to being green…)

The itinerary has been changing almost on a minute by minute basis over the last couple of days, with emails flying back and forth trying to coordinate where I want to go and who I want to see, where Otakuu wants to go and who she wants to see, and what’s possible within the restrictions of the RTW fare and the amount of leave I can take (I’ve already gone way over the 3 weeks I’d planned to be away for – I’ll have to talk nicely to my boss on Monday and renegotiate my leave to be away 4 weeks… or re-think the itinerary once again).

At the moment the itinerary is looking something like:

Christchurch
Sydney
Perth
Singapore
London
Wherever in Wales MrPloppy’s parents are living by then (they’ve just sold their house and are looking for a new one)
London
Vitoria, Spain (via Madrid)
Chicago
Ottawa
Columbus, Ohio (via Chicago again)
Road trip with Buffra, via Washington DC
Charleston, South Carolina
Dallas/Fort Worth
Honolulu (via Los Angeles)
Sydney
Home to Christchurch

…and then collapse!

I haven’t actually got anywhere to stay in a lot of those places yet, but that’s a minor problem… (any offers gratefully received!!!)

Of course, by the time I actually hit the post button on this entry, I’ll have changed my mind again 😉

Otakuu’s going to be taking a similar route, but wants to visit a few different places in America, so we’ll be travelling together as far as London, then splitting up to go our separate ways until we meet up with Buffra for the road trip. Then I’ll probably be heading back to NZ a week or so before her, because she’s able to stay away longer.

It’s all very exciting, and not a little intimidating.

I went to see a travel agent today, but we still haven’t decided if we’re going to use her or Skyring’s agent in Canberra (who’s used to his convoluted airpoints-maximising travel arrangements, so ours should be child’s play for her!). The agent I saw needed a deposit before she could do much for us, so we’ll have to make a rapid decision about what we’re going to do. As I type, more emails are flying around in the background…

In the meantime, bookstring production has slowed slightly, as I keep jumping up every few minutes to check my emails and see what the latest development is. But with a bit of help from Lytteltonwitch on Wednesday night, the count’s up to 225, plus however many she’s made at her own place. Which means we’ve got enough for London, and can now start concentrating on the other conventions happening this year.