Jetconnect actually has a very good J service. Good food, wine, and 1 FA per J pax (as the usual load is 1 J pax per flight!). It is on an old 737 but quite acceptable. Yes, the QF 763s SYD-AKL are better, but I wouldn't fly MEL-SYD-AKL-CHC instead of MEL-CHC just for that (and I do fly LAX-HKG-SYD instead of LAX-SYD but for good reason).

The SYD-JNB flight is quite good once again (was going downhill for a while). Note that you can't use QF's PER-JNB flight as this is a codeshare with SA. Very nice 4 continent trip. Remember the OWE ends when you return to your city of origin, sometimes it is worth keeping the ticket going so you can add more NA flights later.