Our RTW airline ticket will get us to a major international airport in each of the countries we visit, and we need to arrive at and depart from the same airport in each case, but we obviously don’t necessarily want to stay in just one city when we’re travelling so far from home to places we’d may never visit again.

So, we’ve made travel plans within each country, not to try to “do it all”, or even necessarily to check off the famous tourist sites, but to give us – literally – the flavour of each place. It’s my goal to shop at, and cook with ingredients from, the local markets, and balance that activity with some sightseeing and even a bit of relaxing beach time.

To that end, in New Zealand we’ll be splitting our time between the South Island (taking the Sir Edmond Hillary Explorer Rail & Coach Tour which begins in Christchurch and ends in Wellington) and time on our own exploring the North Island, based out of Wellington and Auckland.

Our long initial flight from Vancouver will take us to Auckland. It made no sense to “waste” a stop on the RTW to fly into Christchurch, since we would have had to transfer in Auckland anyway – and we didn’t want to have to return to Christchurch to depart New Zealand. Instead, after a couple of nights in Auckland we’ll take a commuter flight to Christchurch. There’s no viable train service connecting the two cities.

After our train tour returns us to Wellington, we’ll stay there for just over a week before taking the scenic 12-hour train north to Auckland for another week prior to flying to Australia. That train only runs twice each week, so our time in Wellington is arranged to match the train schedule.

NEW ZEALAND INTERCITY: New Zealand Air Auckland to Christchurch, and the Northern Explorer train from Wellington to Auckland.

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In Australia, although we’ll fly in and out of Sydney I really wanted to visit Adelaide, Melbourne, and Canberra as well. It is as impractical to try to see “all” of Australia in one month as it would be to do a good job of seeing “all” of Canada. Australia is huge.

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After a couple of days in Sydney, we’ll fly to Adelaide for a week, take the Overland train from Adelaide to Melbourne, fly Melbourne to Canberra, and take another train from Canberra back to Sydney. The plane vs train decisions were based solely on the availability of single day travel between cities.

Our total time in Australia is just over one month. Visiting the west and north would require a much longer stay.

AUSTRALIA INTER-CITY: Jetstar Airways Sydney to Adelaide, the Overland train Adelaide to Melbourne, Jetstar Airways Melbourne to Canberra, Transport New South Wales train service Canberra to Sydney.

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Then it’s on to Malaysia, where we’ll fly into Kuala Lumpur, but also want to spend time in Georgetown on the island of Penang. We enjoyed our short visit there on the World Cruise (Episode 634 and Episode 635) so much that we definitely wanted to experience more.

Based on input from acquaintances who live part-time in Penang, we’ll take a short 1 hour flight from KL to Penang and back again when it’s time to head for Greece, where we’ve chosen to spend our time on the island of Crete.

MALAYSIA INTER-CITY: Malaysia Air return KUL/PEN.

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The international airport on Crete for our flight network is in Heraklion, but we’ll divide up our month on Crete between Heraklion, the seaside town of Rethymno, and an all-inclusive resort in Chania, travelling by bus between those cities. We’ve had a taste of Chania before( Episode 231), and – again – wanted more. After our time on Crete we’ll fly from Heraklion to Warsaw.

CRETE INTER-CITY: Ktelherlas island bus service Heraklion to Rethymno, Rethymno to Chania, and Chania to Heraklion.

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After a few days in Warsaw, not far from the small town on the Vistula River where my Dad grew up, we’ll take the train to Krakow, where I’m excited about taking a side trip to the Wieliczka Salt Mine.

POLAND INTER-CITY: Deutschebahn trains.

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Then it’s back to Warsaw for our flight to Manchester and the final two weeks of our trip exploring just a small portion of northern England, with a few days in each of Manchester, York, Durham, and Liverpool.

ENGLAND INTERCITY: British Rail trains Manchester – York, York – Durham, Durham – Liverpool, Liverpool – Manchester.

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All but the buses and the commuter trains in England are booked. Now that transit schedules are confirmed, all that remains is locking down the last of our accommodations – and I’m almost there!