CanadaDH

Any flights you're going to find between SYD and NZ on Aeroplan are not going to be in J. J cabins have been removed from all but a few flights into AKL, and NZ just doesn't seem to be releasing the J seats for *A redemption. So, you might find that redeeming an extra 25,000 miles just for a Y seat is not great value for your points, when you could probably just purchase a round-trip flight across the Tasman for around $500. And if you're buying the seat for cash, you can pretty much fly any dates you want.

You can still work your way back up to AKL by car, but you won't actually need to take your car on the ferry. Some of the major rental companies don't want their cars to leave the island they start on, but they have a good system in place. For example, Hertz has a rental office at the Interislander terminals in Picton and Wellington. If you rent a one-way car from CHC to AKL with Hertz, you actually drop off your car in Picton and pick up a new one in Wellington when you get to the other side, and then you don't have to worry about the fees of putting the car on the ferry.