Up, up and away.

And so the adventure begins.

Saying goodbye to an adored and indulged cat is hard. So I didn’t.

He was deep in his day sleep in a comfy chair and would not have appreciated the disruption. And, anyway, he’d done his farewell thing by jumping spitefully onto my belly from a great height as I slept the morning before. The sight of suitcases does that to cats. His ire did not go unnoticed.

Nor did his enthusiasm for his wonderful cat-sitter, Shirley.

He displayed himself in all his glory for her to adore. He showered her in his irresistible appeal.

As the cat slept, we farewelled Shirley and were conveyed through the bustling city of Adelaide by our dear old mate, Rex.

Plenty early with time to relax in the Qantas Lounge. An unaccustomed treat. Alix, who checked us in for Qantas, noted that our due flight was delayed and popped us on an earlier one.

Bruce loves the Qantas Lounge. He headed straight for the food and hoed in. I to the computer. Ho ho.

It was the same story in Sydney where plenty of connection time became just a bit more as our plane to Hawaii was delayed. There was some pretty weird herding around of the waiting passengers before we finally made it into the plane where the crew was really hustling. You can’t rush refuelling but you can go like the hammers getting the passengers organised. The thing is that we were pushing right against the flight curfew in Sydney and if we couldn’t take off by 11pm, we could not take off.

We all started watching the clock as the crew hurtled around.

Could we do it?

Things were made all the more dramatic by the weather outside. Rain was cascading down the windows.

Tick, tick, tick. Rush, rush, rush.

At 10.55 the plane slowly moved to the runway. At 11pm right on the dot, we took off.

It was a funny old crate of a plane with primitive in-flight entertainment. The films were almost unwatchable from the little screens and there was no presence of the Qantas App so we could use our own devices. Damn. So we downed a glorious Bloody Mary and then a glass of wine with dinner and hoped for sleep. Sad to say, the Business Class dinner was underwhelming and, for some reason, the cabin crew was still rushing. They had to put “mattresses" on the seats. Hmm. Seat covers, more like. They were not very soft. Nor were the seats which we managed to coax into cocoon mode. Yes, it is preferable to recline in Business than to crush up in Cattle Class. But it is not all it’s cracked up to be.

Neither Bruce nor I got a lot of sleep.

But there was Hawaii in the morning - and the trials of immigration formalities. Oh, it is just the thing for tired people.

I put my passport in the machine the wrong way, It did not register my fingerprints. Then it took the most godawful picture of me I have ever seen. Bruce was redirected to another queue when his machine did not recognise him and I found myself hanging around wondering what they were doing with him. Then, once we had our luggage, we had to go through the next security and they separated Bruce yet again for reasons hard to fathom. He’s a geeky old thing and the security people obviously are deeply attracted to him. I couldn't see him. But I could see all our combined cabin luggage spread out in trays etc on the conveyer. Cabin bags, computers, phones... I gathered it all together as best I could while trying to see what they were doing with him. At last, they released him. Phew. Off we trotted.

But, oh no. Something's wrong. I had managed to go off and leave my laptop behind in one of the trays.

Lucky thing I had not gone far when I realised this and rushed back through the seething crowds.

Despite its battered appearance with half the letters worn off the keyboard, they made me log in to it to prove it was mine.

More waiting once we had taken our luggage to Hawaiian Airlines. More queues. Tired. Grumpy.

Even here, the airport is a crowded place. People always waiting. My father used to say that purgatory was a transit lounge. He'd been in a few. Now with the volume of travellers, it is all a game of endurance. Be zen. Be zen.

One last leg on this long day.

I am such a terrible flyer. This short flight terrified me and I was sure we were going to land in the sea. But the little island of Kauai tuned up under the wheels and we were here.