Inset: Kiwi Alex Smeele. A street in Noumea, New Caledonia, is pictured after unrest. Photo / AP
Inset: Kiwi Alex Smeele. A street in Noumea, New Caledonia, is pictured after unrest. Photo / AP
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the Government is pushing France to give the go-ahead to rescue hundreds of Kiwis stranded in New Caledonia. However, he said, the decision could still be days away.
Luxon told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking Breakfast the Government is waiting for the French authorities to deem flying into Noumea airport as safe.
“The roading out to the airport in the past 48 hours has had issues in terms of security and unrest. It has to be safe when we move.
“All I can reassure you is we are ready to go. We can deploy NZDF assets, we have also explored other options such as commercial charters. We have been working incredibly well with the Australians.”
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said her and Winston Peters
Alex Smeele and his partner Alexia are among up to 290 Kiwis stranded in New Caledonia, where riots have turned deadly.
Air New Zealand confirmed last night that all flights remained suspended, with its next scheduled service not being until Saturday. However, the airport currently remains closed to commercial flights.
Up to 290 New Zealanders are registered as being in New Caledonia, where riots have turned deadly during the past week.
Among those hoping to get out soon are tech entrepreneur Alex Smeele and his partner Alexia, who arrived last Monday for what was meant to be a well-deserved holiday in paradise.
“We landed about 11.30am local time (12.30pm NZT). We came out of the airport and tried to get a taxi. There were no taxis, but there was already a truck full of [French Police] stationed outside the airport,” Smeele said.
The couple did not read too much into that - until they left the airport.
“It was when we took the shuttle to Noumea ... we started encountering a lot of demonstrators, protesters waving flags and then about half a dozen roadblocks of burning tyres.
“It was only when we woke up on Tuesday morning and we could see plumes of black smoke coming out of the city and heard about riots overnight,” he said.
“I think there were a couple of deaths ... and there was disruption to the airport, that we went into full emergency mode.”
That involved contacting family and friends, including Smeele’s mother in New Zealand and asking that she contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on their behalf.
Pregnant women, elderly, people with children to get priority
They also made a quick decision to book the next flight out - which was to Fiji, in the hopes of getting off the island as soon as possible. However, all flights were soon cancelled when the international airport in Noumea grounded all flights and closed the airport.
The priority will go to pregnant women, the elderly and people with children, Collins said.
Meanwhile, Captain David Morgan, Air New Zealand’s Chief Operational Integrity and Safety Officer, said flights would only be recommenced to Noumea “when we can be assured that the airport is safe and secure and that there is a safe route for our ground staff and customers to reach the airport”.
“At the moment, we are unable to advise when we will have this assurance,” Morgan said.
“Any customers with forward bookings are being offered flexibility or to defer travel but putting flights into credit and we will keep posting any updates on our travel alerts page on our website.”
Smeele and his partner are staying at a resort a short boat ride from Noumea and what Smeele acknowledged was a blessing in disguise.
He said they had heard from some fellow travellers who had taken the risk and headed back on to the mainland, towards the airport and found themselves stuck.
The hotels they are now staying at are said to be struggling with food supplies and some people have even been told to fill their baths in case of a water shortage.
Failure in duty of care for travelling Kiwis
Smeele said he felt there had been a failure in the duty of care provided to those who had travelled to New Caledonia last week.
He said Foreign Affairs officials should have made early calls to warn the public not to travel to the island territory and Air New Zealand should have cancelled flights too.
French gendarme (police) stand patrol at a roundabout in Noumea, New Caledonia. Photo / AP Clotilde Richalet
“What astounds me the most is honestly the fact that there have been protests and demonstrations for months. It was all around this critical vote last [week].
“Anyone should have been able to realise that there was going to be an escalation as it got closer and closer to that date.”
He said before they had travelled, he had checked MFAT’s SafeTravel website regularly. It was down as level one - considered the basic safety standard.
That was changed to a level two on Wednesday - increased caution. Hours later, that had been upgraded to a level three - avoid unnecessary travel - when a state of emergency had been declared.
NEW-CALEDONIA
“The sheer fact that the international emergency contact number for MFAT - it doesn’t work if you call from a hotel phone. Instead of connecting me to a person, which you would imagine it would do, in case of an emergency - it just hangs up on you,” he said.
“We’re quite fortunate that this situation isn’t that severe. But imagine... if there was an incipient hostage situation and you only had time to make one phone call - and you do that and you can’t even get through to someone.”
Vaimoana Mase is the Pasifika editor for the Herald’s Talanoa section, sharing stories from the Pacific community. She won junior reporter of the year at the then Qantas Media Awards in 2010 and won the best opinion writing award at the 2023 Voyager Media Awards.
