It was a tough job but somebody had to do it - pick the winner from a range of colourful decorated pots depicting scenes from a local legend.
Mike Paki and daughter Terira Paki, representing Ngati Apa, were asked to select the best rendition of the legend of taniwha tutaeporoporo at Wanganui Girls' High School last week.
"It was a house competition and usually each house will design a banner but this year we decided to do something different," said school head of culture, Jordan Wills.
"We bought terracotta pots and asked each house to decorate them using their house colours and their interpretation of the tutaeporoporo story.
Then we invited some objective judges who know the story well."
Mr Paki said it was very difficult to select the winning design because the standard of work was so good.
"It took us about 40 minutes to settle on the winner - it was a very tough decision."
The eventual winner was Lincoln House and house captain Julaine McAuley said it was thrilling to win because the other houses produced very high quality work.
"We drafted our designs and submitted them for approval before we got to work on the pots."
Ms Wills said the pots will be painted with weatherproof varnish, planted with native trees and placed around the school entrance.