Giant Easter egg hunt will help Starship hospital

Photo / Thinkstock

They could be hidden in the park, down an alleyway or staring you right in the face.

One hundred giant eggs were hidden in secret locations throughout Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch overnight to kickstart an Easter egg hunt.

Dozens of volunteers helped to hide the eggs - which have been decorated by people including Dick Frizzell, Dame Trelise Cooper and Colin Mathura-Jeffree - for the Whittaker's Big Egg Hunt that runs until April 22.

It supports the Starship Foundation, a charity supporting the national children's hospital.

Each egg has a unique code on it that can be texted in to win the overall prize, a 340g 18ct Whittaker's Gold Slab made by Partridge Jewellers.

The giant eggs will be auctioned off for the Starship, 80 on Trade Me and the rest at a gala event on April 16.

Whittaker's will also give at least $150,000 to the Starship from sales of its Peanut Slabs and other chocolate during the hunt.

Starship Foundation chief executive Brad Clark said extraordinary creativity had gone into the eggs - "from realism to abstract, to dinosaurs hatching, stainless-steel sculpture, a bunny biplane and so much more".

Information about The Whittaker's Big Egg Hunt, including city maps, is on www. thebigegghunt.co.nz and on Facebook at www. facebook.com/BigEggHuntNZ