how to use mobile phone GPS without a SIM card?

[zen at freedbms.net (Zenaan Harkness)]

In a certain neurone's synapse firing (asking "for a friend") my, I
mean my friend's mobile phone GPS ought to work without a SIM card,
my friend would think.

However when I try to use an app that attempts to get GPS coords,
with Wifi turned on (and the app updated itself and browser working,
so Internet working), the app (Waze) just remembers my previous
country (Australia) location and continues to "Attempting to get GPS
location" but never finds a new location in my new country location
(Noo Zealand).

 - Android
 - Wifi on
 - GPS on
 - Airplane mode not enabled
 - no SIM card
 - mobile data disabled
 - Bluetooth off


Any ideas why GPS would require a SIM card?