TPTB for TAR are known to follow the rule that the shortest distance between two points is not a straight line! They have been known to backtrack and go by the longest way just to pile up the miles so that they can brag that TAR10, for example, covered a record 75,000 miles on their trip around the world. So the seemingly indiret itinerary from Seattle to Ulan Bator (via Hawaii and or Tokyo) down to New Zealand up to Singapore and then on to Kuwait via New Delhi makes sense.