Cancelled Flight - Told to wait a week for the next available flight!

My partner and I were set to fly JetStar from Auckland - Melbourne - Darwin. After arriving at Auckland airport 3 hours before our flight, we see that our flight has been canceled on the screen (they sent us an email an hour later). After calling the JetStar number, the JetStar associate happily informed me that he would put us on the next flight to Melbourne IN A WEEK! I explained to him that it is insane to think you can strand someone for a week because of the company canceling the flight (canceled for maintenance, which is in their control). The next suggestion he gave me (after refusing to let me talk to his manager) was to put me on the next flight to Australia that day (Gold Coast) for $970 a person... That is more than I paid for all my flights. When I fought that price, he lowered it to $167. When I agreed to do that and asked when I would be connected to Darwin, he informed me there is no flight that week to Darwin... Then he offered to send us to Melbourne-Adelaide-Darwin, in total it would be almost 20 hrs of travelling. After over an hour, I convinced him to put us on a Qantas flight (which is a parent company) to Sydney and JetStar to Darwin.