I concur
And I learnt at Massey (PM).
IMHO, going to University was great fun and I would and hopefully will do it again, but if all you want to do is learn to fly, then get your PPL part time locally while asking around. Then when you do pay for the CPL, you will pay less in a big hit quickly at wherever you think is best, rather than the first best-looking option.
And Massey has an entire department devoted to making it look very, very good, which doesn't help it's reputation or the quality of it's students. Remember it's so big the people in control see aviation as the very smallest of schools, even smaller then the Vet school. They have to deal with numbers, not people because there's 10,000 there. Compared with where I last worked, I'd go GA if I had my choice of flying again, although I really liked the whole University scene. Heaps of cool people and student discounts and ultra-cheap gym ($20 per year!), really nice campus in PM when the rain's not blowing your face in, easy to get around and fly to Surfers Paradise cheaper than home to Christchurch.