Luke:
I wouldn't be entirely surprised if the NZ security forces actually still have some ability to respond to those type of truly extreme situations, even though we no longer have the old Skyhawks. Best we don't really analyze that possibility any more deeply on a public internet forum though,
Two questions:
(1) What makes you believe that - do we have some other anti-air capability spread around NZ that we don't know about?
(2) Why not analyze that on a public forum? If a bunch of half-informed spotters on an obscure website can find the achilles heel in NZ's fortress-like defences, I'm fairly sure that anyone who really wants to has already done the same.
Also, a comment on the preceding posts: a air attack force would not have helped in resolving this situation, unless you propose having two jets on ready-5 alert 24/7 near every major city in NZ. And even the US can't do that.