Its really a financial rationale...Im doing this trip on a tight budget and I cant afford to pay for the trans-tasman segments, so that's why I'll use my UA miles for round trip trans-tasman SYD-AKL-SYD and pay for AKL-CHC-AKL...SYD-MEL-SYD is still up for grabs...I may just do SYD-MEL and then go home from there...not too sure yet...hope this clears it up...
N674UW