Exotic stopovers between US and Brisbane?
I have a business trip in July to Brisbane, and am considering bringing along the whole family (eight of us) from the US to make a vacation of it. We have been to the typical spots in Eastern Australia before (Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns) and while they are certainly worth a second visit, we are collectively in the mood to do something rather more exotic. We are the kind of people who are far more interested in remarkable natural beauty or bizarre flora and fauna than, say, urban nightlife and museums. It seems like it has been too long since I woke up someplace and thought "I can't believe I am actually here".
We may have up to a couple of weeks to work with. What would any of you recommend as an unforgettable place to visit/explore in the general South Pacific area?
Having been to (and loved) Thailand and New Zealand, those would not necessarily be at the top of our list this time around. Other than that, we haven't traveled in Southeast Asia or the South Pacific at all. While not being beach people by any means, we were thinking that we had never been anyplace (well, except Hawaii) of a Polynesian culture. However, are there really places where one can get completely away from the beach resort culture, and yet remain thoroughly safe? I had been thinking maybe Papua New Guinea as off the beaten path, but then a few things I have been reading online have made me doubt both how practical it would be to get anyplace interesting there (from a transportation standpoint - I do like to have the independence of driving wherever I go, so a lack of roads can be a problem), and whether it is truly a safe destination.
New Caledonia? Christmas Island (would love to be there for a crab migration, but I don't know when that takes place)?
I feel I am unusually ignorant about that corner of the world, which is precisely why I would like to explore a bit.
Any recommendations will be appreciated. Of course, it would be a big plus for any possible destination if it could viably be included as a stopover of sorts in an air ticket (award or otherwise) US-Brisbane-US, or at least be relatively inexpensive to reach.