After some tough competition involving some particularly tricky words, it was pharaoh and integrity that took two Northland students to the top of the school spelling bee tree.
Ten students from Whangarei Girls' High School, Dargaville High School and Kerikeri High School battled it out in Whangarei on Tuesday in the Far North semifinals of the New Zealand Spelling Bee.
Now in its 11th year, Tuesday was the first Northland regional contest, with students previously travelling to Auckland to attend the regional competition.
The spellers earned a spot at the regional competition when they were placed in the top 200 New Zealand Year 9-10 spellers after completing a written spelling test.
And after some tough words on Tuesday, the winners of the regional competition were Year 10 student Michaela Jenkins-Stevenson, from Dargaville High School, and Year 9 student Acima Mabidikama, from Kerikeri High School.
Despite a tense atmosphere, neither betrayed any nerves and stayed composed throughout the 13 rounds.
Michaela confidently spelled "pharaoh" and Acima correctly spelled "integrity". They were the only spellers to survive the last round of words.
The two students have won airfares and a night's accommodation in Wellington for themselves and a parent/caregiver. There they will meet 16 other spelling bee finalists from around the country. All will compete for the title of 2015 New Zealand Spelling Bee Champion and the $5000 prize.
Organiser Janet Lucas is still wowed by the level of skill among the students.
"The level of spelling was tremendous. It is a huge accomplishment to get this far in the competition," she said.
The Sponsor of the New Zealand Spelling Bee is School's Out, before- and after-school care and holiday programmes.