Indeed, a very kind offer from DUF. As it transpired, I just went with the $NZ35 fee to transfer required points from AMEX before noting DUF's post.

In the 2 days wait for the transfer to show, a number of the award flight options for my date change disappeared! I now have a 7 hour layover in SYD on my AKL-SYD-SIN (QF142/5) compared to my original routing (QF114/5) .

Might be a wine tasting afternoon.....