All I'll say is that so far when Emirates has decided to do something it has usually turned out to be a success, and so if they decide to use New Zealand as a hub to expand into the Sth Pacific and Sth America, Qantas and Air NewZealand better watch out, cos servicewise those two airlines are a long way behind emirates.
From todays Gulf News, in the next two years Emirates plans to add San Francisco, LA, and Chicago to its direct flights from Dubai along with New York which begins in June.
From personal experience all the flights back to Melbourne have been packed to the rafters so they are doing something right, and with profits over 300 million Australian dollars last year, again I think if they choose to do something they have the capital to back it up.
By the way, chocks, the oil in the Dubai emirate has pretty much dried up now, but they have diversified their businesses so well that the oil money is pretty irrelevant these days.