Historically, primary and secondary distance education in New Zealand has focused on providing opportunities for rural students. With the advent of Tomorrow's Schools in 1989, the need for rural schools to compete with urban schools in terms of their curricular offerings was one reason for creating e-learning clusters that would eventually become the Virtual Learning Network (VLN). After 25 years of practice, there is a growing body of research into these rural e-learning clusters. However, in 2011 the HarbourNet cluster became the first active, and sustained, urban-based VLN programme. This study begins to address the lack of research into urban e-learning by exploring the challenges HarbourNet was able to overcome to become a successful member of the VLN.