Kiwi Doodle for Google contest winners announced

Eight-year-old Amelia Abbot's winning entry in the first Doodle for Google competition to be held in NZ.

A Nelson girl has won the first Kiwi Doodle for Google competition.

Eight-year-old Amelia Abbot's colourful entry will be displayed on Google's homepage for a day next year.

The Hampden Street School student's 'Green and Gorgeous' entry beat out thousands of other entries from more than 600 schools around New Zealand.

The competition was run as a joint effort between Google and Te Papa, and was open to students from Years 1 to 10.

Entrants were asked to create a Google logo with the theme 'My New Zealand'.

Amelia Abbot's 'doodle' was one of 20 winners selected last month by judges Charlotte Huddleston, Te Papa's Curator of Contemporary Art, Huffer founder Steve Dunstan and children's television presenter Erin Simpson.

2009 Doodle 4 Google national age group winners

Years 1-3: Amelia Abbott, Hampden Street School, Nelson (NATIONAL WINNER)
Years 4-6: Abigail Sadlier, Awapuni School, Gisborne
Years 7-8: Sophie Arnold, Fairfield Intermediate School, Hamilton
Year 9-10: Emily Fountain, Epsom Girls Grammar, Auckland.

Google's Dennis Hwang said: "The standard of entries was extraordinarily high, and choosing just one national winner was hard. I loved Sophie's bold use of colour, the way Emily thought outside the square with her beautifully-crafted 'Google kiwi' and how Abigail was able to tie in elements of the New Zealand landscape that are obviously very special to her.

"Our winner Amelia created a beautiful doodle that showed innovative use of animals and Kiwi icons as the Google letters to communicate her vision of New Zealand nature, and I would have been proud to see it come out of our Google doodle team. I look forward to seeing it on the Google.co.nz homepage in 2010."
- NZ HERALD STAFF