The exact wording for not recognizing my degree as Hons was as follows
"Bachelor degree qualifications from Canada typically contain a number of general education/liberal arts courses in a foundation or freshman year not related to the major subject(s) studied in following years. This is the case with your Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Religious Studies and is the reasont hat your degree has been assessed as comparable to a 3 year bachelor degree (360 credits) in New Zealand"
So maybe there are some Hons degrees which will be recognized as a 4 year degree if you didn't have general education requirements.
I am also going to email my evaluator back and ask about the AQ course. Either way an AQ course will at least look good on a resume for Special Ed. for you...it's better than nothing! From what I've looked into it though Special Education here has it's own post grad diploma but I haven't looked into it too much.