I am in the process of moving to Vanuatu but am on the Gold Coast at present.
Best advice is to take everything slowly and spend time there before investing too much.
Generally it seems that now is a good time to buy but you still need to know what a good price is. many properties are for sale at a high price and you will need to work out what you are looking for.
We are looking at spending a week to 10 days in December to see if it was what we want. I also considered the Cook Is but think it may be a bit too claustrophobic.