Please notice, nobody is legally allowed to TELL you which choice to make, unless they're an immigration lawyer or an LIA. See the two Sticky threads at the top of this forum.
https://www.enz.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=6
Have a look around on the threads here, and you'll see that at the moment, INZ timings are all over the place, and no statements (on their website or from an official in person) are safe to rely on. So backup your plans as much as you can (as the last poster is suggesting).
He's not quite right about interim visas. An interim visa can be issued by INZ whenever someone has applied for ANY temporary visa, to keep them legal while processing is finished on another temporary visa they have applied for (not when waiting for residence). But the conditions of the interim visa vary, depending on what visa the person has at the moment, and what they have applied for.
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-...isa-conditions
Therefore, you won't get an interim visa unless you apply for another temporary visa before or at the same time as residence. And you won't be able to work on any interim visa in the circumstances you describe, because you won't be applying for another student visa.