Isle de Pins and Noumea

[diesel canberra]

A quick trip report on our quick (6 night) trip to Isle de Pins and Noumea. Loved Austmans recent report so I feel either inspired or "guilted" into sharing our trip! Mr Diesel and I headed off CBR to SYD (Y), then the usual lovely bus transfer to T1. SYD - NOU (J) on AirCalin on Tuesday 29 August and we do the return tomorrow 4 Sept all on Qantas. In addition, a quick 2 night trip to Isle of Pins.

We were very relaxed heading to CBR airport - even the uber driver was 20 mins early. Mr Diesel checked a bag - which the lovely Q check in staff told him he would pick up in Noumea. I was HLO. Flight was 50 mins late leaving Canberra (Im not quite sure this accords with what AJ recently said about on time performance) and once landed in Sydney we headed for the Frist class lounge for some bubbles. Everything appeared to be super smooth, right down to the lovely S&P squid.

Things changed when we went to board however. On inspection of our boarding passes there was a bit of a challenge. AirCalin had removed Mr Diesel's luggage as they weren't certain he was travelling! How they got this idea was not known but apparently they had been paging us in their lounge to confirm he was travelling. The staff checking us in advised us it was standard practice for pax to recheck with the airline operating the service if you joined from another airline. Never heard of this, never had to do it before, but they were quite certain. The baggage receipt actually said Noumea and we had thought that should be sufficient.

There was a bit of a standoff and we explained we were leaving early the next morning for Isle de Pins so needed the luggage. This was all happening at the start of the boarding and it was clear we were last pax. Management came over and asked us to board while they tried to get the hull reopened and new load sheet. About ten minutes later, a Air Calin person came on the plane to tell us they managed to get the luggage on board. While it ended well, it seemed all unnecessary but maybe something to be aware of in the future. Travelling out of CBR, we frequently have to change airlines so were really surprised this occurred.

 

[diesel canberra]

The flight to Noumea was uneventful. Food was good and wine was enjoyable I had the fish and Mr D the chicken. Service was friendly. Seats very comfortable (3D & E) We had arranged private transfers through Allotransports to the Hilton for a quick overnight stay before travelling out to Isle de Pins the next day.

 

[diesel canberra]

The Hilton was a great place to stay. Extremely well located, however an aging building. Staff were excellent and we left feeling happy despite our room having no hot water! The next morning, we had a transfer into the city airport for a 35 min flight to Isle de Pins. The weather was looking pretty poor with heavy rains and winds and the pilot was quite clear there would be turbulence.

Despite all of this, the flight was actually smoother than CBR to SYD the previous day and we landed in the pouring rain without any issues. It was a bit disappointing as I had seen beautiful photos of landing on the island with crystal clear lagoons all around it. The weather gods weren't smiling at us however so I didn't get many (any) good photos from the plane.

We had booked a hire car for our two days on the island (Edmonds Hire) and we were very glad we did. We headed off to our accommodation at Oure Lodge. Luckily our villa was ready and we were able to check in and figure out what we were going to do given the rain had started.

Our villa was very spacious with a lovely verandah that overlooked the Bay. We ate at Oure Lodge both nights we were on the island and the meals were good and they had an excellent wine list which really surprised us. We thoroughly enjoyed some lovely french wines.

The weather turned really bad and so there was none of the planned snorkelling or boat trips we had imagined. We had 80mm of rain in the afternoon and more the next morning before it eventually cleared to display what a beautiful island it is. The car allowed us during breaks in the rain, to get around the island.

We did go and check out Le Meridien Hotel and its certainly impressive building. The lobby / cafe area was very busy with people sitting inside because of the rain enjoying a coffee or a wine. Not sure what the rooms are like.

 

[diesel canberra]

Here are some photos of the bay where Oure Lodge is situated......and morning tea we purchased at Vao markets. Well you got to do something when its raining!