Any cheap advice for Tahiti?

My best advice is probably to go to www.tahiti-explorer.com and ask your questions there. When I was researching my trip to Tahiti the forums there were an excellent source of information - there were a number of posters who traveled there often as well as a couple of locals who were able to provide up to date stuff. A lot of the posters are looking for honeymoon type of info and higher end resorts but I was still able to glean information for our budget trip. Tahiti is definitely going to stretch your limits when it comes to cost but is worth it. As for island hopping your most reliable bet is to use one of Air Tahiti's passes - we went with the one that let us visit Huahine, Bora Bora(our favorites), Raiatea, and Moorea(it also includes Maupiti). At around $500pp it will be a large chunk of your travel budget but, unless the ferry situation has improved, it will be your best way for seeing different islands. This is where tahiti-explorer may help as they will have the latest on the ferries/boats that connect the islands. The island of Tahiti was our least favorite but it does have a bus system that will allow some cheap travel around - on the other islands we biked and rented the occasional car(expensive) but Moorea had a bus/truck type of service which we did not use. Being an older couple(wanting a few creature comforts) we did not use hostels but were able to find places that had kitchen facilities we could use - some also offered complimentary bikes which helped us save a few dollars. We also brought some food items with us - a jar of peanut butter when combined with the cheap baguettes and a banana made excellent sandwiches to take on our outings. We were able to keep our food costs down by shopping at the local markets and buying fruit at roadside stands. We chose to do only a couple of activities and would definitely suggest a splurge trip to see the lagoon of Bora Bora. If you enjoy history, etc the trip up the Faaroa River and to the Marae Tupatupaatea on Huahine was excellent. Hopefully this will give you a start on your research - feel free to PM me if I can help you further.

Thanks for the suggestions. Leaving tomorrow so we will see how it goes.