Russell family through to semifinals of television reality show, XVenture Family Challenge, filmed in Bay of Islands

The Maioha family, from Russell, are through to the semi final of the XVenture Family Challenge shot at Eagles Nest. Photo / Supplied

A Northland family is through to the semifinals of a television reality show filmed in the Bay of Islands.

Carpenter Gavin Maioha, wife Angela, daughter Grace, 14, and son Kade, 12, of Russell, competed in the XVenture Family Challenge in October on the grounds of the luxury resort the Eagles Nest in the Bay of Islands.

They competed as Team Maioha and scored 26 points— five more than Team Wright from Hamilton when the episode screened on Sunday — and both teams qualified for the next episode.

Team Meek from Wellington and Taupo's Team Henare were the other competitors.

In the series, host Simon Barnett sets 16 families a range of diverse team challenges. The eventual winners will get $25,000 cash. The series started showing on Three on February 11 and will run every Sunday for eight weeks.

Each week, four families compete in three different challenges. Two families go through to the next round and two return home.

On Sunday's episode, the first challenge was called Last One Standing and all participants had to jump to avoid being knocked over by a revolving arm. Team Maioha scored 10 points in the first challenge.

In challenge two, each team had to negotiate a trolley down a steep hill to retrieve bags and to pull them back up. The team with the highest stack of bags won.

Team Maioha's stack was the third highest but it was tied 16-all with Team Meek in points after both challenges.

In the third and final challenge, the programme producers flew a drone over Eagles Nest and took six photos. Participants were given 10 minutes to snap six identical photos using a drone.

Team Maioha got 4.5 photos correct — a half point as framing was a little bit out— which was the highest of all teams.

Mrs Maioha said her family didn't know how the challenge would work but it was amazing.

"We watched the episode with family and friends at home and it was the same as watching the All Blacks score a try," she said.

Sleeping in a tent on Eagles Nest grounds on the night after the first challenge was great, she said.

The 16 families were chosen from a major search across the nation including 50 regional events, from schools, sports clubs, performing arts groups, associations and local councils.