Haast school children had a rare chance on Thursday to question Prime Minister John Key about his lifestyle choices and policy decisions.
The 14 pupils thought they had just over 15 minutes for the teleconference but Mr Key extended that to 30 minutes.
The rare opportunity to see inside the Prime Minister's Wellington office from the school about 700km to the south was made possible by a high-speed satellite broadband trial provided by Farmside, in conjunction with the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Education.
One other school, at Winchester, in South Canterbury, took part in the trial.
Principal and sole teacher Jill Cogger said the school was sad the month-long trial had ended.
"[John Key] was really good with the kids. He was very relaxed and chatted with them. We thought we had 15 minutes, but he had no problems continuing a wee bit longer," Ms Cogger said.
Mr Key gave 30 minutes of his time, explaining where he lived when in Wellington and talking about his home in Auckland.
Once the details were dealt with, the 14 pupils of the remote South Westland School told Mr Key how much they enjoyed having the trial. From next week, it's back to basics and slow dial-up connections.
Broadband access is a significant priority for remote rural schools and their communities and there is a bottleneck for Haast residents and businesses trying to transfer information.
"It can be diabolical. You'd be lucky to get 26 kilobytes [a second]," Ms Cogger said.
The Government has undertaken to provide fast broadband to all rural schools in six years. Satellite providers say they can help now.
Ms Cogger said she hoped the Government would decide satellite broadband was effective for schools like Haast's. Most children left the community for schooling. Video conferencing was a way children could learn from home for longer, she said. Ms Cogger takes a eight-hour return trip for courses, while a Wanaka-based reliever has to travel 300km to fill in.
