Can a stopover & open jaw be permitted from LAX/SFO to Australia/New Zealand w/award?
 

Using United award miles, can both a stopover and an open jaw be permitted from LAX/SFO to Australia/New Zealand? For example, fly to Melborne on Air New Zealand via Christchurch, do a stop over in Christchurch, then fly on to Melbourne. But, for the return, fly from Sydney to LAX/SFO on either United, or Air New Zealand, via Auckland? Or, vice versa on the itinerary. Therefore, doing this type of routing, it appers to be a combination of an open jaw and a stop over. Is this permitted using United award mileage? Thanks.

On United int'l awards, 1 stopover or 1 open jaw, but not both.

OpenJaw etc
 

Probably best to take the stopover and rearrange the itinerary slightly. They do give you some freedom to choose the routing, as long as it's available and within the rules
eg
SFO-LAX-AKL-Christchurch (your stopover)
Christchurch-Sydney (your destination)
separate Sydney-Melbourne on Virgin, about USD120
Sydney-SFO or SYD-LAX-SFO (your return journey)

You could ignore the last LAX-SFO and bail out at LAX if you want an open jaw at the US end

And maybe you can convince them to let you do this, it seems to be within the rules:
SFO-Sydney-Christchurch (stopover)
with up to 24 hours for the transfer in Sydney
Christchurch-Melbourne (destination)
Melbourne-Sydney-SFO