There is actually an opportunity here for AKL to act as a hub connecting South America to certain South East Asian destinations, e.g. HKG. Going via AKL would be 500-1000nm shorter than existing routings via Europe or North America.

NZ have been looking seriously at South America for a while. The problem is, until the 787 arrives, they don't really have the aircraft to fly it. I don't think the 772 can fly AKL-EZE economically (yet), due to ETOPS restrictions. And I couldn't see them using a 747.