Looking for advice for South Pacific itinerary

Hi,

I am looking for advice regarding a good itinerary for the South Pacific. I will have the whole of January 2017 for travel and I already have a flight booked on bonus miles arriving in Auckland and leaving Melbourne 25 days later.

I will be traveling on my own and I would like to discover as much as I can, since I don't know if I'm ever going to have that much time again for a journey like this. It should not be too stressful, but I am not looking for much relaxation either. I tend to think lying on the beach one afternoon or for a day every 4-5 days would be enough. Other than that, I am looking for beautiful landscapes and scenery, cultural experiences, etc. However, I am not a diver; snorkeling is fine, but I am not keen to do it several times. I was trying to find information, how long one should stay in the different countries and almost all posts I found said at least 10 days or more for each country. But I'm wondering if you really need that much time when traveling on your own and when your focus is more to get to know the different cultures and landscapes. Or would it be better to stay in say Fiji and to discover all the different islands that belong to it? I think I would prefer to travel around and get to know all the different regions and mentalities. Even if it means, I cannot see all the places in one region. But as I am uncertain, this is where I am seeking advice...

Now to be honest, I still have to read a lot about the islands in the South Pacific, but at the same time, I am checking what kind of itinerary would be possible in the first place. Turns out it's kind of difficult with only a limited number of flights. For now I am looking to combine Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands and French Polynesia and I have found the following three possibilities:

1st alternative (which seems the best in terms of almost equal number of days in each country, but also quite expensive):
- 4 days, Tonga
- 4 days, Fiji
- 4.5 days, Cook Islands
- 5 days, Tahiti/French Polynesia
- 4.5 days, Samoa

2nd alternative:
- 2.5 days, Samoa
- 5 days, Fiji
- 5.5 days, Tonga
- 6 days, Tahiti/French Polynesia
- 3.5 days, Cook Islands

3rd alternative:
- 3.5 days, Fiji
- 4 days, Samoa
- 6 days, Tonga
- 6 days, Tahiti/French Polynesia
- 3.5 days, Cooks Islands

Do you think this sounds like a good plan? Is there someone with tips where to spend how many days and what would be a good itinerary? Does anyone know about connections between the countries by ferry? Also if you have any other tips for that kind of travel, please let me know. Thank you very much in advance!

3-6 days per country is horribly rushed.
Plus expenses are much higher when you fly that much internationaly, especially out to the Cooks and Tahiti. There are no international "ferries" between those countries.
And with all countries Polynesian, you don't get much cultural diversity either.

I'd recommend just doing Fiji, Toga, Vanuatu.
You'd spend less on international flights but see more diverse cultures and islands.

Spend your whole time in Fiji.
There is plenty to do and a great diversity of country, culture and beautiful people.
It is very good value and they can do with all the help they can get right now.

Cheers,
Peter

25 days and you are asking for ferries in the pacific. Kinda funny. :P

But lets try to help;

For that amount of days, just take one place for 3 weeks, be it whatever country you mentioned.

You say that go to Fiji and explore all of those islands? Impossible. You will not be able to explore any of these countries all islands in 25 days except Samoa, Nauru, Pitcairn, etc some exceptions. You can only do a bit of surface scratching; This is a fact that you must understand.

Narrow your ambition down a bit, and decide do you wanna spend more time in places with faster access (with more tourists) or you wanna go far away from the tourist places to "almost untouched" places (with less tourists) where you have less time because of the longer transport.

This is a balance you must find from inside of yourself, no one else can answer this question, my young padawan.

If you want to just check the countries off your "been to, done that, seen it all" list, maybe then do your original plan.

25 days in the pacific is an eyeblink. ;)

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