I remember A/B payphones being in common use here until they were replaced with Telecom cardphones, which must have been late 80's or very early 90's. Put in 6c (3x 2c - that dates it as 2c coins were demonetised in 1990), dial a number, then press the button on answer. Or, if you knew to subtract each digit from 10 thanks to our oddball dials, just tap dial
Of course no problem dialling 0 for the operator, or 1 so you could call 111 Emergency.
Not sure if they were the same units, but seeing NZ seemed the follow the UK in phone-related stuff they probably were. There's some pictures
here.