We met up at Sydney airport, with various family members there to see us off. Myra's daughters Kay and Gwen with their husbands Ray and Dick, came from Cowra and Sydney respectively, Uncle Richie came from Gunnedah and Neil came from Canberra where he had moved to for work. I was still in Gunnedah at Gunnedah High teaching English, waiting on a transfer to Yass High School, just outside Canberra. I had decided to enrol in a two week course at the Eurocentre in Paris to improve my mastery of French language, so took two weeks' holiday and an extra two weeks for travel. Somewhere along the line I decided it would be nice to have Jean along for company, and as Myra had just lost her sister Josie not long before, she ended up coming too. They were to go to Scotland and Ireland whist I was on my course in Paris.
At 1445 we took off on Continental Airlines flight CO8, bound for Honolulu, the first leg of our trip.
We were greeted on arival by the usual lei carrying young men, before making our way to the Edgewater Hotel, and our first dose of pancakes for breakfast.
