KEY POINTS:
West Auckland schoolgirl Georgia Rihari had no trouble choosing her companion on a trip to Paris as a prize for winning an environmental art and writing award.
A communication mixup meant staff at Henderson North Primary School initially thought her close friend Justice Davidson had won the prize in a competition sponsored by Auckland rail operator Veolia Transport's parent company and the United Nations educational, scientific and cultural arm Unesco.
"We thought Justice had won and she picked me to go - so when I found out I had won, I picked her," said Georgia, before the girls were handed their air tickets by Veolia managing director Chris White at a special school assembly.
The tear-free arrangement between the friends, both aged 9 and from Massey, came as a relief to their teacher, Hine Viskovich, who organised competition entries from all her Room One students and who will fly with the pair to Paris on Sunday on their nine-day adventure.
The students all sent entries based on a legend about Opanuku Stream, which runs near the school and which they used to illustrate links between people and nature.
These included a short story and sketch of a mask representing the stream's resident taniwha, Te Awhiorangi, its guardian against pollution from human development.
Georgia and Justice will join children aged 9 to 11 from 25 other countries, whose entries will form a "Tales Around the World" exhibition from June 1 at the new Quai Branly Museum, which specialises in indigenous art from around the world.
Mr White, whose French-based parent company Veolia Environnement developed the competition with Unesco, presented all the classmates with family passes on Auckland trains, buses and ferries and the school with a digital whiteboard and former United States Vice-President Al Gore's book on climate change, An Inconvenient Truth.
