While a group of 15 Arrowtown Primary School children chatted with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the world looked on.
The children were special guests on the Shotover beach when Shotover Jet hosted its most high-profile customers to date.
After the Royals were treated to a spin on a jet-boat 9-year-old Mikayla Evans said the couple asked the group if any of them had been on a jet-boat ride, while 12-year-old Gabby White said she talked to Kate about competitive swimming.
With the world's long-lensed cameras snapping away, Jessica MacDonald (9) said conversations centred on what everyone had planned for the Easter holiday.
''I thought Kate was dressed beautifully,'' she recollected after the Royal couple and their entourage left the beach, leaving in their wake more than 100 international and local media representatives and several hundred vocal fans.
