Tour of Pacific Islands and Papua New Guinea

Hey fellow backpackers and non!

I am currently in Australia on a working holiday visa and am already looking forward to my next travels which would probably happen in one year time, six months if possible. EXCITING!

And since I'm in OZ, I was actually thinking of going around the pacific islands, maybe starting from Papua. I was wondering if any of you had ever backpacked (is that even possible??) around these islands. For some reason, I have the feeling that it aint gonna be cheap. Also I reckon, tons of flights would have to be booked, right??

These are the places I wanna cover:

Papua New Guinea (probably starting from there), Fiji, Samoa, Salmon Islands, New Caledonia, French Polynesia.. what else what else?? I am open to anything. Cheers

The best route would probably be PNG, Solomon Islands, then either Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji or Fiji, New Caledonia, back to Fiji, Samoa, back to Fiji and on to French Polynesia.
It is not possible to fly direct from many countries ot other countries. Check the FAQs for possible routes.

Ozziegiraffe said in #1: The best route would probably be PNG, Solomon Islands, then either Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji or Fiji, New Caledonia, back to Fiji, Samoa, back to Fiji and on to French Polynesia.

There aren't direct flights from Fiji to the French Polynesia. Therefore, it could be better to make: PNG-Solomon Islands-Vanuatu-Fiji-Samoa-Fiji-New Caledonia-French Polynesia.

Of course it is possible to backpack in this region, but it will cost more than say SE Asia.
Not necessarily more than AU though!

Tonga is a cheap possible addition to your planned route.
French Polynesia is expensive to include.

Solomon Islands has very little specific backpacker accommodation, but lots of transit or rest houses used mainly by locals. Staying at these can give you plenty of local insight. Similarly, travelling on local "ships" (ferries) is relatively cheap, but they are very basic, and generally don't have a schedule.