I was told that when you have a Master's degree, the interview is bypassed?
No, this is wrong.
http://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/43652.htm tells you what the CO will be looking for. It boils down to 'employability' - knowledge about your career in NZ, and about the NZ way of life, so that anyone granted a residence visit can be supposed to impress NZ employers and quickly begin to contribute to NZ society by being employed in a skilled job, while at the same time not being so thrown by arriving in a foreign country and establishing a home and way of life there, that they will be distracted from finding that job and getting started.
Here
http://www.enz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=27398 is the old thread on this subject which has lists of questions and further discussion.
'Did anybody go through this before?' - yes! Everybody who applies for residence under SMC without having a skilled job offer in NZ gets interviewed by their CO in this manner.