A tour of Nouméa’s buffets
October 23rd, 2007 by Tim Uden
Well after about two hours wandering around the confines of Nouméa La Tontouta Airport I am told that my flight is being delayed a further five hours! But fortunately Aircalin will provide a bus to a nearby restaurant and lay on a buffet. Lazing around the swimming pool at the Rivland Resort in Paita eating complimentary creme puffs, after a nice buffet lunch sure beats hanging around the airport café.
After around three hours at the Rivland Resort we are told that the flight will now be delayed until 3.50am the next day. Apparently our plane is in Wallis and Aircalin have arranged for Qantas to send a new plane across from Sydney, but Qantas won’t have a plane available till around midnight.
This further delay means the evening at Le Surf hotel in Anse Vata (which actually isn’t as nice as its stars would suggest) along with another buffet. The hotel may not be that great, but the buffet is very nice and would have cost me 4900F (AUD $65, EUR €41, GBP £29, USD $59) if I were to pay for it. Oh, and Aircalin paid for drinks as well.
This delay also gave me the opportunity for another Cointreau sorbet at La Sorbeterie in Baie des Citrons (about a five minute walk from the hotel the airline put us up in); well it would have if I hadn’t spent the last of my francs at the airport.
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