That's partly right Massey1B, you do need to enrol in a diploma course, but Waikato Aero Club and Bay Flight both offer these (along with many others), so they are definitely options if you require a student loan, and both have been running full-time, fully-funded courses for some years.
FuturePilot, I can tell you from personal experience, both outfits in Hamilton are good at what they do - just keep in mind that you're very unlikely to walk straight into an airline here in NZ (barring a few CTC cadets that may get into Eagle), so with that in mind, the aero club would probibly stand you in better stead to enter the GA environment. CTC are focussed on training pilots to go straight from a light aircraft into a jet airline environment, which will probibly not be all that relevant to you.
I don't believe Ardmore Flying School deserves all of the negative comments posted here, but they do tend to promise more than they can deliver at times. Not all bad though, just make sure you look past all the hype.
Good luck with your decision, don't put too much weight in everything you read here, particularly some of the more extreme views from people who are incapable of objective debate. Cheers
