london-columbo-auckland-nadi-rarotonga-london -how to go cheaper?

These are the approximate flight prices I'm finding:

London Heathrow – Columbo (early July) - 400
Columbo – Auckland (end of July) – 400
Auckland – Nadi – (early August) 200
Nadi - Rarotonga – (mid-end of August) 300
Rarotonga – London Heathrow – (end of September) 800

Does anyone have any bright ideas how to do this cheaper? (Itinerary is flexible, except for SL being in July, getting home by end of Sept, and wanting to go to the Aitu, Aitutaki and Rarotonga among the Cook Islands, not only Fiji.) We're in no rush, July to September is free, and I won't be free for any more long travelling for another five years (Vet Med, if I get in), or possibly ever again! I want to make the most of my last few months of freedom!

If feasible (=not costing more than 20% more), we'd prefer to travel by boat/catamaran between (and to if possible) the S Pacific islands to save on airmiles/CO2.

We'd be travelling as a couple, and meeting up with some friends in Sri Lanka who'll have been travelling for six months by then, who're then going on to Indonesia -so it might make sense for us to follow them and go by land along Indonesia and ferry from PNG to the Solomon Islands, and from there a domestic, less expensive flight to anywhere in the S Pacific islands. Do you think that would be less expensive overall, considering living costs in Indonesia on the way?

And how completely crazily expensive is it to get to Easter Island? I'm guessing completely!

re. the second possible route by flying columbo - kuala lumpur (£56 1st Aug) then train and ferry to indonesia more train, ferry to papau new guinea, ferry to solomon islands, fly from honiara (solomon islands) to nadi (fiji), the air fare from honiara to nadi in sept is £190, and £240 nadi to rarotonga by Air NZ on 5th Aug. So 400 to columbo, 60 to kuala lumpur, say 200 overall to honiara by train and ferry, 190 to nadi, 240 to rarotonga = 1090 sh*t, that's not so much cheaper as I expected! the straightforward air route I started with is 1300. hmm, maybe see more, maybe spend more on the way, but much less CO2.

Reverse route, I guess probably straight back from Rarotonga.

route 1) total 2100 in travel
route 2) total 1890

I'm gonna try rarotonga- auckland-london next... see if I can make the return less expensive.

London-Nadi is just 650, and Nadi-London is 800, the same as Rarotonga-London.

So apart from the saving on Columbo-London, it isn't cheaper to go in one trip while we're already halfway there. But how can I apologize to the polar bears!

route 3)

London – Columbo – London –direct 637, indirect 439

(possibly another year...)

London – Nadi – London 975 return
nadi to rarotonga £240 by Air NZ on 5th Aug

total 1654
sorry, polar bears!

or 1215 if we just went to the S Pacific and didn't join our friends in Sri Lanka

oops, 975 is before taxes, in total that's 1408

route 3- corrected)

(london - columbo -london - 439)

London – Nadi – London 1408 return
nadi to rarotonga £547 incl. taxes
(possibly london-nadi, nadi-rarotonga, rarotonga-london wouldn't be cheaper because Rarotonga-London at 800 is more than half of 1408)
sub-total 1955
total (incl. SL) = 2395

so in theory it's £455 less to do it in one trip AND it reduces the amount of CO2 we're contributing to drowning the polar bears... ;-)

apologies for thinking out loud while answering my own question, but I thought it might be useful to others too!

Edited by: chinapplepunks

You've found out a lot already.

But try also looking into using Asian transit points.
Air Asia flies from London to Malaysia cheaply if you book early.
From Malaysia they fly to both Colombo and HK, and from the latter Air Pacific flies to Fiji and on to NZ.