Rarotonga? Fiji? Tonga?

Hey!

I'm going to travel around Nz until April and I want to discover a pacific islands before my trip to Australia.
But I'm not sure about the destination. I want to stay two weeks in a place and I can't spend to much money.

It seems after reading the other posts that it's not very interesting to stay only in Nuku alofa in Tonga or only in Rarotonga. And the international flights are pretty expensive to me. Is it possible to get to another islands by ferries?

And I was wondering if maybe it's better to go to fiji which seems to be easier to get around in.

But I'd prefer to discover a place out of the touristy tracks...

Any experiences ?

Need more info... how much money is too much money?

Fiji is definitely the best of the 3 countries to catch inter-island public boats.
Several islands have daily boats from Viti Levu, others are served several times a week.
Many/most Fijian islands are lightly touristed.

But with 2 weeks, you could get to 1 or 2 outer islands (like Eua and/or Hapaai) by boat in Tonga, too.

The Cooks are basically flying only.

Actually at the beginning I thougt about staying at the same place during two weeks. The plane tickets are already expensive only from Nz. and to Australia (about 450US$ ) But I've found that it worth discovering several islands and I can't afford buying plane tickets again but maybe by boat if it's not more than 100US$...It could be great ! :)

So I'm looking for a place not really touristic and easy to get around.

"I'm looking for a place not really touristic and easy to get around."

There is no such place.

Understand that locals in the S Pacific are quite poor and travel relatively little-it's tourism that drives transportation links.

It's very easy to get around Viti Levu by public transport and easy enough to get to the other islands, i.e. Vanua Levu, Ovalau etc. as well.