Jetstar has quietly become the cheapest way out of New Zealand to Asia, and it isn't close. I scanned every NZ airport against eleven South East Asian destinations across September to November, and Jetstar came back cheapest on 17 of the route/date combinations I checked. The next airline's best fare on the entire board was NZ$100 higher.
Everything below is a real Kiwi.com price in NZD, checked tonight:
Christchurch → Singapore, Mon 2 Nov: NZ$440, 1 stop in Melbourne, 13h45 total
Auckland → Bali, Tue 24 Nov: NZ$446, 1 stop in Melbourne, 16h05
Auckland → Ho Chi Minh City, Tue 13 Oct: NZ$518, 1 stop in Sydney, 14h20
Wellington → Singapore, Tue 3 Nov: NZ$527, 2 stops (Auckland, Melbourne), 26h30
Christchurch → Bangkok, Tue 13 Oct: NZ$584, 1 stop in Melbourne, 16h30
Auckland → Bangkok, Wed 4 or Thu 5 Nov: NZ$636 per Kiwi's calendar (I confirmed $715 on the 3rd, so the mid-week days are the ones to grab)
For scale, in the exact same search: Air New Zealand wanted about NZ$750 for that Auckland→Bali date, Singapore Airlines about NZ$915 for Christchurch→Singapore, and Air NZ about NZ$960 for Auckland→Saigon. The Christchurch→Singapore fare is the standout. NZ$440 for a 13h45 one-stop is less than a lot of people pay to get to Australia and back.
The Christchurch thing is worth dwelling on. Three of the six fares above are cheaper out of Christchurch than Auckland. Christchurch→Singapore beat Auckland by about $80, and Christchurch→Bangkok beat it outright. Nobody checks that, because to check it properly you'd have to run every NZ airport against every Asian city on every date, one search at a time. That's exactly what I built skyspy.deals to do: one search, every airport, every date, prices in NZD. It's how these surfaced, and it's why the cheapest fare in this post leaves from the South Island. Free, no signup, no account. Disclosure: it's my site and it earns a commission if you book through a partner link, which is what pays for the servers. These are all bookable direct with Jetstar too, same flights.
Two things that make these better than they look:
The cheap connections are protected on Kiwi, not self-transfer. If the first leg runs late, the rebooking is their problem, not yours. Worth knowing, because self-transfer bargains are usually where posts like this fall apart.
Mid-week is doing all the work. Christchurch→Singapore is $440 on Monday the 2nd and $609 on Tuesday the 3rd. Auckland→Bali is $451 on the 24th and $647 the day before. Shift your date by one day and the price moves NZ$150 to $200.
Worth knowing before you get excited:
Jetstar flies no direct NZ to Asia service, so all of these route through Melbourne or Sydney. The 13 to 16 hour totals are fine. The Wellington→Singapore one is 26h30, so only take that if the price matters more than the day.
Starter fares are cabin bag only. Add a checked bag, seat and meal and you're still comfortably under Air NZ or Singapore Airlines, but budget for it.
One-way fares, and prices at this level move within days..