The final season of Game of Thrones kicked off at 1pm, except on Neon

In the hours after the final season of Game of Thrones premiered, Kiwi fans scoured the internet in search of Westeros - but many couldn't watch it on demand.

The eighth season of the ultra-popular programme aired at 1pm on Sky's premium channel, Soho, at the same time the rest of the world got to see it.

But it wasn't immediately made available to stream on Neon.

A Sky spokeswoman explained that Game of Thrones aired on SoHo at the same time the company received the episode.

Sky then had to upload the show to its streaming service, Neon.

"We're working as fast as possible to get it up on Neon for fans. There's no delay to coincide with a broadcast, we did literally get the episode as it was simulcast to us at 1pm," she said.

On Monday night, Neon gave subscribers an update and announced the episode is now available to stream online.

"We appreciate your patience and hope you enjoy your return to the Seven Kingdoms," it posted on Twitter.

However, one user wasn't please with the quality of the stream, commenting "there is a lot of lagging".

Long-time Thrones fan and Stuff columnist Kylie Klein-Nixon live blogged the season eight premiere. She said it was "everything GOT fans have longed for".

"It foreshadowed plenty we've been dreading. If we thought all the pieces were in place at the end of last season, we were getting ahead of ourselves," she said.

The show was due to broadcast again at 8:30pm on Soho.

Sky said Neon users should download the app, where they could get a push notification when Thrones was available to stream.

Over the past few months, she said Neon had seen an increase in subscriptions thanks to the final Thrones season. In the lead up to Monday's premiere, she said Westeros lovers had been re-watching earlier seasons in preparation.