Island Hopping

Here's a question, and I understand it may be unanswerable or impossible but I figured I'd ask since I've always found valuable information on these forums before.

I'm planning a trip around the world going as overland as possible. I've had to concede some flights (Darwin to Bali, for example, I'm beginning in Melbourne, Australia) and I'm thinking I may need to do the same for crossing the Pacific.

But I don't want to miss out on the Pacific Islands, and I'd like to avoid too much catastrophic damage to my wallet. To that effect, does anybody have any ideas how I can island hop across the Pacific (likely beginning in Chile, as this will be my 'home stretch' back to Australia) for cheap?

I can understand if it isn't possible, most of the commercial flights I've looked at have been in the thousands for the stretch from Santiago to Papeete, even more if I want to land on Easter Island (something I did want to include, but have realized I may need to concede for the sake of my budget).

Thanks in advance!

I could also try and go the other way from Alaska to Russia but the infrastructure up there apparently forbids anything but flying.

There is virtually no commercial passenger sea transport between the different island countries, so your only real options are flying or finding a yacht that needs crew.

Have a good search around the various Pacific shipping lines to see which ones take passengers. Freight is moved back and forth around the Pacific all the time, while some of the vessels take a few passengers as well. Modern shipping is fairly fast and efficient so you wont get to stay in port for long.