Ned,
I have worked with lots of very talented Kiwi pilots. I am not bagging the whole of NZ. What i said was the majority of NZ trained pilots have ordinary navigation skills as a result of learning in NZ. This is what they have told me. It would be pretty hard to get lost over there.....
In this particular case, the student was from a wealthy family and he did not have to work for his licence at all.But the flying school who has a very experienced CFI (12,000 hrs +), still took his money without ensuring that he new the basics.
This sort of thing seems to becoming more prevelant all over the world.There are 3 flying schools in Australia that i would suggest to avoid at all costs.