Looks like this will all end up as a fairly quiet written conversation that I had with myself. So - where am I then *shuffles papers*.... right.... having read through the rest of this thread, I ended up with a load of addresses. Here's what I've found thus far. I'm posting it in case I got some details wrong, made some wrong assumptions, missed anyone worthwhile out etc. Communities like pprune make the World a small place, and if there's someone out there that I should get in touch with, I'd love to know.
Al Gwilt/MW Helicopters - They're a Gazelle operation in Stapleford, so I can't remember how he ended up on my list.
Wanaka Helicopters - Great. Email sent.
Garden City Helicopters - I put a question mark beside these guys because their web site didn't tell me enough to make my email list.
NSHelicopters - Don't seem to be a training outfit.
Heletranz - Same as above.
Bruce Harbey/Harvey Helicopters - no website that I can find.
Ian Wakeling - Same as above.
Christchurch Helicopters - Email sent. They train with R22s which is a minus, but their site is quite good. No prices, mind you.
Shoreline Helicopters - Can't find them at all.
Helipro - Great site, email sent.
Tasman Helicopters - They don't seem to offer training and only seem to have one EC120 B4.
Mountainair - Seems to be a fixed wing school.
Heliflights - Already contacted and had a reply from these guys. A bigger/busier school than I'd like, but I'm not dismissing them yet.
I also called and left a message with Fast helicopters in Shoreham and tried to reach Heliflight in Wolverhampton to see if the UK is an option. I couldn't reach anyone at either place, and the prices at the former have me more convinced than ever that ownership/part-ownership of a turbine-engined machine has got to be cheaper than 600 quid/hr they charge for self-fly/hire in a Hughes/MD500. Add training rates and VAT, and it seems that it would actually be less painful to eat a Hughes 500 than train in one in the UK. Buy/leaseback might be an option but I'm getting ahead of myself.