Secret Coldplay lyrics found in Tauranga

Coldplay have hidden handwritten lyrics in libraries around the world. Photo/AP.

Two Kiwis have won the ultimate treasure hunt - finding handwritten lyrics by world-famous band Coldplay in a Tauranga library.

To promote their upcoming album Ghost Stories, the UK band hid lyrics in nine libraries around the world and began posting clues on Twitter.

Following them was Tauranga fan Lauren Bracken, who was in Auckland when she realised one of the lyric sheets had been stashed at her local city library.

Coldplay tweeted the hint "CLUE 7: Where the Apterygidae family have plenty in the bay, find the City Library on Willow and look for Ms Jackson's THoHH #lyricshunt" earlier this morning.

She immediately phoned her friend Annalie Tennant, who began driving toward the library as Bracken tried to crack the riddle.

The book turned out to be The Haunting of Hill House, a 1959 novel by Shirley Jackson, and Tennant grabbed it from the shelf just in a knick of time.

Inside it was a sheet of paper with the lyrics for the band's new song, A Sky Full of Stars.

Library staffer Harley Couper, who had been following the tweets and twigged just minutes after Tennant arrived at the library, raced downstairs to find the book.

"I couldn't find it and then I saw it down on the ground it was on the bottom shelf, and obviously someone had pillaged the letter from the book mere minutes before me," Couper said.

"Good on her, well done, but I would have loved to have found it myself."

Ms Bracken said the minutes leading up to the big find had been tense, as others began to tweet the name of the book.

"Then Annalie called me and said, 'I found it'. I said, 'are you serious?' and she said, 'Yeah, I got it'. I was very, very excited."

Ms Bracken is driving home today to meet her friend and their newfound souvenir, which she has no intention of selling.

Coldplay has congratulated the girls on Twitter.

Here's how the hunt played out on Twitter:

CLUE 7: Where the Apterygidae family have plenty in the bay, find the City Library on Willow and look for Ms Jackson's THoHH #lyricshunt

CLUE 7 #lyricshunt pic.twitter.com/g0cguEzzym

Oh my! We did it @coldplay @annalie_emma #coldplayfound #ASkyFullOfStars pic.twitter.com/jRdhc0fvAW

A SKY FULL OF STARS found by Annalie and Lauren at Tauranga, NZ in S Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House #lyricshunt pic.twitter.com/eD6bxW0yZM