Thanks, slinky09 - I believe Expedia have finally helped him with some kind of immediate resolution - he's coming home on NZ (sounds to me like Expedia offered to pick up the tab for a one-way flight back - so at least he's not had to incur the cost of that).

No more information right now - I think he's just relieved to be getting home and is probably exhausted by it all... I seriously doubt it, but I hope the op-up gods happen to smile on him

Still seems a very weird state of affairs, though - and not handled very well by either party for the first 72 hours