For stays of three months or less, no visa is required for New Zealanders or Australians, but your passport must be valid for at least three months after your return date. You will also need to prove you have a return ticket.
Travel or health insurance that covers any expenses which might arise in connection with repatriation for medical reasons, urgent health attention and/or emergency hospital treatment is also required. If you are unable to provide proof of this at the check-in counter, you may be refused check-in.
Being an island nation, much like NZ, there are strict rules in place to protect its unique flora and fauna. Be sure to declare any food, plant or animal products that you are bringing into the country.
Departure airport experience:
One of the most pleasant airport travel experiences I’ve had. From the non-existent queues at the Aircalin check-in counter and the easy stroll through security in Auckland to the glide-through baggage collection and customs at the other end, everything about getting to New Caledonia was a breeze. The two-hour, 50-minute flight was on time in both directions.
I flew Economy and the flight was a comfortable three-quarters full. I had a window seat towards the back of the plane, which some might consider less desirable, but when the cabin doors shut and the two seats next to me were still empty, it became a highly desirable position in my eyes. In fact, the last eight rows of the plane were very sparsely populated, often with one person occupying a full row – unlike the rest of the plane, which was completely full.
The seat itself was comfortable enough and had a good recline, however, my tray table was on a considerable lean meaning anything placed on it was likely to end up in my lap. Not a huge problem though, given I had the whole row to make use of.
Crew:
Friendly and considerate – even going so far as to leave my meal on the tray table of the empty seat next to me while I snoozed through the first 40 minutes of the flight.
Food and drink:
We were served a tasty tomato pasta bake with plenty of melted cheese on top, a bread roll, some butter and cheese, and a nice moist apple cake to finish it off. Everything was really tasty. The wine selection was limited to “red or white” but I was pleasantly surprised to find the white to be a respectable pinot gris.
Economy pasta bake meal on Aircalin flight from Auckland to Noumea.
Entertainment:
No free Wi-Fi on board, but there is a range of Wi-Fi packages you can purchase starting from US$7.50 for 50MB – however, you only have one hour to use it and it excludes voicemail, video calls and streaming video. Still, that’s probably the cheapest internet you’ll find until you’re back in NZ (unless you rent a Wi-Fi dongle from the airport kiosk for the duration of your stay – highly recommended) as New Caledonia doesn’t have any kind of roaming package available for NZ or Australian mobile networks. But I digress - it’s only a quick flight and there are plenty of movies, TV series, games and music to choose from. So quick, in fact, that if you don’t pick your movie wisely you’ll be watching half on the way there and half on the way back like I did. Headphones were supplied.
New Caledonia’s La Tontouta International Airport is a good 50-minute drive from Noumea so best to factor this in if you have connecting internal flights to catch to the smaller islands as these largely depart from Magenta Airport in central Noumea. The arrival process was simple and relatively quick – once you’ve walked the 50 metres or so across the tarmac to the arrivals terminal. In saying that, there was only one duty-free shop open when I arrived mid-afternoon and a fair bit of construction was taking place.
On leaving I finally had a chance to check out Aircalin’s Hibiscus Lounge, which is located on the first floor, just above the departures area. The lounge serves Aircalin, Qantas and Air New Zealand flights, but is only open two hours before a flight departure – which can vary between four and six per day.
Aircalin's Hibiscus Lounge at La Tontouta Airport, New Caledonia.
The best bit:
Definitely the breeze that was the departure process at Auckland Airport – it was like one of those lazy river rides at a water park, it felt like I walked into the departure terminal, grabbed an inflatable ring and just leisurely floated all the way to the plane.
Oh, and the views from the plane as you come in to land.
By far the most impressive, sustained turbulence I’ve ever experienced on a flight. The cabin crew, however, barely batted their eyelids – continuing to serve meals and pour drinks until a water bottle jumped out of the service cart and rolled away down the aisle. It was at that point they finally admitted defeat.
Oh, and losing my favourite blunt-nose jewellery pliers going through security in Noumea on the way home. I didn’t even consider those dinky wee things could ever be a security threat (neither did security at Auckland Airport on the way there) but I wasn’t about to argue with the New Caledonian security officer who’d just done a full Hollywood demonstration of their lethal capabilities on her fellow officer.
