Ok, hopefully this journal entry won't come out in French. I'm using a french keyboard, but changed teh input language to English, so none of the letters are in the right place, but it allows me type faster!
I got up about 8:00 this morning, showered, packed the rest of my stuff up, checked out, put my big backpack in storage, then went and had breakfast in the kitchen with Lucy (girl in our dorm room...she has to cut her trip short and go back to England because her dad is sick). About 10:20, decided to make my way to the airport, so bought a bus ticket on the air bus from the hostel, and went and waited at the bus stop. The Airbus's are supposed to come every 20 minutes, but I didn't get one until after 11:00, and then it had to drop off and pick up a wack of other people, and I didn't get to the airport until about 11:45.
I went to check in, and I handed her my ticket and visa, and she asks me if I have a return visa to get back into New Zealand. I'm silent for a few seconds, digesting this strange comment. Finally, I say that I don't have a visa, because I'm from Canada and I don't need a visa. She's like, "Oh." Then she asks if I have a return ticket out of NZ, I remark I do, then ask her if she wants to see it. She says yes. By this time, a second person comes to the desk, a man. They are kind of discussing things as I dig out my Auckland->Sydney ticket. I hand it to them, and she says, "But this is to Sydney." I'm like, "Ya, and...", thinking to myself why the heck does she give a freakin care where I'm going after New Zealand. She then asks me if I have a return ticket back to Canada. I say ya, and I proceed to try and find it. I produce it, the man looks at it. That return ticket back to Canada satisfied them, and they hand me back all of my tickets, and my passport, and gives me my boarding pass. The man makes a joke about me getting to the sun and beaches and out of the cold, and I say that's the idea.
With that over, the rest of the flight goes without any hitches. The airline is partnered with the support of Air France, and everythign is in french.
The plane leaves late because they're waiting for two more passengers whose other flight was arriving late.
We land in New Caledonia, and the airport is small (smaller than Regina's), and as I exit and they have a bunch of "natives" with hula's on, playing and singing at the airport, as you'd expect from any South Pacific island. They obviously came just for our flight, because after our flight left the airport, they all packed up and went home. Outside the airport, I was pointed to a girl working a stand that sold bus tickets to Noumea (airport is about 45 minutes from Noumea). The bus ride is 2500XPF (Pacific Francs something or other), which of course, I have none (no ATM in airport), so I give her my $40 New Zealand dollars and tells me that will be good. I suspected I got took, not really knowing the exchange rate, but on the bus, I figured it out, and it would've been about $35-40 NZ dollars, so it was close.
I got dropped off at the Youth Hostel in Noumea. The countryside along the bus ride was very unimpressive. I'm in a 6 bed dorm room all by myself. It's about 1300XPF, about $17CDN. The hostel is quite nice, situated on a hill with some impressive views.
Apparently New Caledonia is the 2nd most expensive island in the Pacific, so $17 for a dorm is pretty damn good!
I flew Air Caledonia International. Very nice airline! Very friendly (surprising for French!) and excellent food, and of course, being French, there's plenty of wine to go around!!! Each seat has it's own little monitor/TV screen (just like Malaysian Airlines), and I was quite impressed. Except they all assume I'm french, and try to talk to me in francais.
So, I suppose I should get get a few groceries and make something to eat back at the hostel. In the kitchen at the hostel, everyone has their own little "food jail", and you're given a key to your jail cell, inside you find your own plate and cup and utensils and stuff, and you put your grocers in there and lock it up. It's quite neat! And the fridge is a BIG walk in cooler, and same idea there, the key opens up your little "jail cell" where you'd keep your refrigerated items. Very cool idea, and prevents people from stealing your food (somethign that quite common at the Funkhouse!)
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