Two months ago I received a QANTAS email about half price airfares to certain destinations. Noumea over the King’s birthday weekend looked great! Leave Friday and return Tuesday fits the bill nicely. Our on ground experience confirmed that this is the perfect getaway.
Come Tuesday morning we board our flight and wait. Half hour after our departure time an announcement from the captain confirms our worst fears. Engine malfunction no replacement part, flight cancelled. As there are few flights out of Noumea on any given day we lined up got ,our instructions, and back to Noumea for the night. Very late that night after a commiseration dinner of foie gras and truffled brie, a text message had us on an early flight out the next morning.
A 4:30 wake up on Wednesday to get us there and we have a different plane at the air bridge but eventually the same result. Engine troubles, no fix, flight cancelled. Another 1 hour drive back to Noumea and over lunch a text to say we are on the 5 pm flight out to Brisbane and then to Melbourne. This time our flight leaves Noumea but 45 minutes late and too late for our connecting flight to Melbourne which is the last one leaving Brisbane. As we land in Brisbane the text message drops to reticket our flight to Thursday morning. Our 4 hour flight takes 3 days and our long weekend morphs into a week away sadly with the last 3 days being waits in airports, queues and multiple 1 hour drives between Noumea and the airport. First world problems to be sure but after 2 full days lost income those half price airfares don’t look like such a bargain after all.