Long and short story is that my phone had some unscheduled contact with the concrete and the screen has a couple of lengthy hairline cracks. I did an online chat and have it on record that Apple will charge "only" $170-something NZD for a broken screen only repair. I have sent them a diagnostic and the online agent confirmed that my phone is all fine hardware-wise and having tested everything myself.
This appears to be a change from Apple's previous stance that no repairs are available on the IPhone 6. I have personally known of a couple of pretty unhappy experiences with out-of-warranty/outside of warranty repairs with Apple-authorised repairers. If you've had a broken screen on your IP6 and had it successfully repaired by an authorised Apple repairer in Auckland, I'd love to hear from you. I am particularly wary of claims of additional damage and massively long repair times when I have personally seen this done in 30 minutes in an Apple Store in Aus.
And generally speaking, which authorised repairer would be you people's preferred option?
Everything happened on a good Saturday night (no alcohol involved) - gutted.