A word on Transport

Since many folks seemed curious about how we were planning to actually travel during our journey, I thought I would share our plans. I (i.e. She) had a romantic notion of completing our journey substantially in the manner of sustainable tourism: our intention was to take solely public transport [which does include airplane travel though as long as we don't charter our own jet] or self-propelled means of transport (legs or wheels) where possible. We had been reliably informed through our own experiences and through the writings of many a travel author that this was by far the best way to experience a culture, see the landscape and also meet people.
So far so good.... we took local buses in Fiji, we have traveled the North and South Island of New Zealand largely through buses which aside from an oft-traveled and always late cheapo service by K-bus (otherwise labeled "stray-bus"), and hired bikes on several occasions to explore more widely than our little legs could carry us. Have to admit that we did hire cars for just 2 day trips to get out to the mountains on one occasion, and to escape rain on the other, but hopefully, we will be able to continue this as the modus operandi of our journey.