Gaudalcanal
Guadalcanal was in the South Pacific Area which was commanded by US Admiral Halsey from New Zealand. Most of the US troops that went to Guadacanal transited through NZ, staying in many camps throughout the country. Any vehicles or other equipment for the Yanks on Guad or the Solomons would have transited through NZ or been sourced from NZ, or shipped directly from the States. If they did have Carriers, they would be either NZ built (most likely) or supplied by Britain from Brit or Canadian manufacture. The NZ army used LP2a Carriers and even Canadian Valentine tanks successfully in their Islands campaigns, including Guadalcanal.
Australia was in the South West Pacific Area and the US troops here were under Gen Douglas Macarthur. Ol' Dougie slipped out of the Phillipines in late '41 with a handful of cronies in a US submarine to Darwin, Aust, leaving behind thousands of US soldiers to the fate of surrender to the Japanese. There was no shipping out of equipment or vehicles. There are a few references of "reverse Lend-Lease" supplies of Australian vehicles to re-equip the Americans, so we can presume a similar arrangement existed in NZ.
The pic below is of a NZ Valentine on Guadalcanal in Jan 1944 (Source: Alexander Turnbull Library WH509)
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29-10-04, 01:24
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