John Gulliver, sure, she don't need a big pelicase, averybody has hes way to store and transport his expensive gear and i trust a Pelicase.
At least in Europe the luggage allowance is only one piece for carry on, so i can store my DSLR, chargers, disks and the Laptop in a Photo backpack, but there is absolutly no space for housing and so on.
As there was a tread (here or in wetpixel) some months ago with pix of a broken Pelicase while travelling as checked luggage and that convinced me even more to like my foam padded and plucked to shape pelicase to have my "inexpensive" Ikelite rig safe and in order.
As OP is a experienced photographer i would not suggest a D200 for land use and go for a newer model like the D5000 or better the D7000 as i consider them far superior.
I personally would not buy a camera without a internal focus motor as it is limitating the choice of lenses what personally would bother me.
Also the D7000 has a (theoretially ) better exposure and autofocus metering and a better monitor.
I also overseen that she don't want to take the DSLR under water so i would suggest to buy only the body and get the one i use:
the Tokina 12-24mm, a Nikon 50mm f1.2 and the Nikon 70-300mm VR and she don't need a big Pelicase for land use as this land rig will fit easily in a photo backpack.
I would not recommend to buy the D5100 or D7000 as kit with the Nikon 18-105mm VR as i find this lens a waste for such a excellent camera.
Here some reviews and comparisations:
http://www.thephoblographer.com/2011/04/05/which-one-nikon-d7000-or-nikon-d5100-comparison-review/
http://www.digitalphotographywriter.com/2011/04/nikon-d5100-vs-d3100-d7000-d5000.html
Chris