It was a tough job but somebody had to do it - pick the winner from a range of colourful decorated pots depicting scenes from a local legend.
Mike Paki and daughter Terira Paki, representing Ngati Apa, were asked to select the best rendition of the legend of taniwha tutaeporoporo at Wanganui Girls' High School last week.
"It was a house competition and usually each house will design a banner but this year we decided to do something different," said school head of culture, Jordan Wills.
"We bought terracotta pots and asked each house to decorate them using their house colours and their interpretation of the tutaeporoporo story.
Then we invited some objective judges who know the story well."