The Haast community is $2000 closer to its $12,000 goal of connecting quickly to the outside world, after last week's inaugural Creative Arts Fashion Show hosted by the Haast School and play group.
Organising committee member Rachel Norton said yesterday the final outcome from raffles was still not known, "but it looks like we have made $2000 from the night [after expenses taken out], which will be split 50-50 between school and play group".
Haast is a small but popular tourism, whitebaiting and hunting destination and is visited by about 2 million people a year.
It does not have cellphone cover and its internet access is dial-up.
The community has already received $1500 from Eveready for a national competition in which the 13-pupil Haast School was runner-up.
Another $1000 has been raised through a fun run, donations and a technology workshop.
Brochures are now being sent out to the wider community seeking support.
The school's share of the fundraising will be put towards technology to link the isolated pupils to other schools and provide them with more learning opportunities. The 13-child play group is raising money to pay for improvements to facilities and equipment.
The school board of trustees decided to proceed with satellite technology after a free trial earlier this year funded by Farmside, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Economic Development.
In an interview after the fashion show, principal Jill Cogger said the technology upgrade would be a valuable community resource.
Nurses, doctors, the board of trustees and teachers would all benefit.
"In time it will really pay for itself. We want the rest of the community to use it. Potentially, it could open up a whole lot of opportunities," Ms Cogger said.
The Government is spending $1.5 billion to accelerate the rollout of ultrafast broadband to 75% of New Zealand homes.
However, the South Westland community is too remote to be part of the scheme.
"It is a number-crunching game. The population base does not justify the expense," she said.
At the 2006 national census, Haast had 297 residents in 156 occupied dwellings spread throughout a region of 250sq km.
This is about 9% of the total West Coast population of 31,326 people, which is spread over an area of 23,276sq km.
The Statistics New Zealand 2006 census also recorded 43.2% of Haast households had internet access, compared with 49.8% of households throughout the West Coast.
Although Haast does not have cellphone coverage, about 8% of households have a cellphone, compared with 62.6% of West Coast homes; and 16.2% of Haast homes do not have any telephone, internet or fax access, compared with 4.1% of the West Coast as a whole.
