Yes I've done it, and not really worth doing. Worse seating, stopover in the night where you need to disembark, stand around then reboard the plane (by stairs). Can be a very humid and wet transit if you travel at the wrong time of the year or get unlucky. Much less sleep. Not much view (since most of flight is at night).

Can also be hard to book since NZ discourages through pax from booking the flight.