pb_and_j, thanks for the suggestion of using Orbitz to at least narrow down the flights for eahc leg. The fare was pretty high (although not as astronomical as I thought it might be) but I don't plan to purchase this way at any rate. It helped me to see where we could fly and times and now I can work on booking our flight from Chicago to Sydney and then back from Aukland using frequent flyer miles (thanks to the people who mentioned doing that) and then go to Qantas and try to catch some deals where we can put together several of the other legs. Or maybe use a variety of on-line booking sites to do the other 4 legs of the trip. Now at least I have a rough idea of what each leg will look like. It's like putting together a jigsaw puzzle ! We also discovered that if we add Darwin in, the flights will be realy obnoxious, so I think we'll skip that leg.

Also try Air NewZealand
http://www.airnzdeals.com/usa/tw8nz/index.asp?id=4103