My wife and I are in the early planning stages of a four month South Pacific oddessy. Ideally, we'd like to hit 4 - 6 countries, staying at least one full month in several of them. We haven't narrowed it down yet, but our list includes Australia, New Zealand, PNG, Fiji, Tahiti, Bali, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Thailand.

I'm interested in any good resources (books, web sites, etc.) that can help us figure out where we want to go. Also, I'm most interested in resources for finding affordable condos or houses for multi-week stays in some of these locations (most likely French Polynesia and Bali).

Many thanks for your assistance!

I envy your trip.

First let me say that NZ north and south islands can take a few weeks (we spent 14 days, 6 of which were in Auckland and the rest driving the whole of North Island). Australia has taken us 50 days so far and expect another 40 days to do it our way. Tahiti was a two day adventure and we would have liked to be there 3 more. Have not been to the others but expect each will not be different enough or have unique activities enough to make more that a couple of days necessary to "do it all". We found, and you may to, that a cruise is a good way to see several islands in the South Pacific to get a feel for them. So many offer beauty, ocean and wonderful people but little "hard scape" (museums, aquariums, zoos, plays, etc.).

I have found the internet a great source of travel information. Activities, hotels, rental cars, etc is readily available. Only the specific experienced comments from FT will seem necessary after that.

Use your search engine and put in "______ tourist activities", filling in the blank with the location of interest. You should find navagating in that arena will give you all the information you will ever have time to do. Be prepared to do some note taking. Try to organize what you are looking for and where. Keep open your microsoft office to flip back to to make your notes. This will make a final Plan easier.

I just recently returned from a trip to Fiji and I can tell you have a lot of options when it comes to where to stay. The cheapest places to stay are close to Nadi Airport. Although they are cheaper than the resorts, they are basically an airport hotel, and you will not have access to a beach or lagoon. You best bet would be to stay in the 3-3 1/2 star range for hotels. We stayed at Crusoes Retreat and it was very nice. It was not a 5 star resort,but the staff and the guests were all very friendly. Its pretty far away from the airport, it took 2 hours by transfers. It is actually the first resort ever in Fiji. But if you like peace and quiet, then this is the place for you. If you are looking for something a little more updated then I suggest something the the Fijian or the Warwick. They are more expensive, but they have more resturants and bars and shops.
Fiji is beautiful, and I highly recommend that you make it one of your destinations. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif

You have an interesting trip planned but keep in mind that if you travel during southern winter then you'll be hopping between freezing temps and tropical heat. Australia and NZ can get pretty cold in winter but Pacific Iles are pretty warm. The best place to shop for vacation packages would be Australian weekend papers like Sun-Herald and Sunday Telegraph. Packages for Fiji are about US$300 for a 5 night stay including airfares from SYD with Vanuatu being just a bit more expensive. French Polynesia would be about US$550 for a package deal.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Spider:
The best place to shop for vacation packages would be Australian weekend papers like Sun-Herald and Sunday Telegraph. </font>

Thanks for the tip! Can you name any Australian newspapers with good web sites?

There are some great deals being advertised at the moment, especially to Fiji (get a meal package if you can). Check out travel.com.au - they have a great newsletter, or lastminute.com.au. I wish I had that much holiday!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by mharad:
Thanks for the tip! Can you name any Australian newspapers with good web sites?
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Try the following:

www.sunherald.com.au (http://www.sunherald.com.au)
www.smh.com.au (http://www.smh.com.au)
www.dailytelegraph.com.au (http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au)
www.sundaytelegraph.com.au (http://www.sundaytelegraph.com.au)

or alternatively visit your nearest major library and have a look for these papers.