Kaikorai Valley College pupil Michael Turner (16) and St Hildas Collegiate School pupil Angela McAnally (16) were selected by the Young Enterprise Trust to join 80 other pupils from around the country for the pressure-cooker challenge in Auckland.
Their trip started with a meet and greet at Massey University where Prime Minister John Key spoke and mingled with the group.
The real work started the next day when they were divided into 10 teams of eight and competed among themselves to create a business plan to develop or enhance a product.
At 9pm, the teams were issued the global challenge and were given 24 hours to come up with a product which would aid waste minimisation in their country while alleviating starvation in one of the world's poorest countries.
Angela's group of "amazing" people came up with the idea of selling worm farm kits in New Zealand and donating the profits to Tanzania.
They found it hard because everything they came up with had either been done before or was too hard to pull off, she said.
Michael's group decided to take the 100,000 tonnes of organic waste collected in kerb-side recycling nationwide and put it all in a massive glasshouse. Methane gas produced could be burned for power and put back into the national grid, he said.
The compost left over would go into farming maize which would be dried and sent to Africa.
Working non-stop to create a business plan in under 24 hours and being constantly on the go taught them a lot about time management, they said.
Prioritising and problem solving were also important skills they developed.
Angela believed the experience had been "amazing and really worthwhile".
A university degree was on the cards for her, but law and commerce were vying for position in her head.
Michael enjoyed the opportunity to be among his peers and made many friends during his time in Auckland.
He was also one of 12 pupils selected to attend a weekend workshop in Auckland in two weeks time.
From there, he could be one of six selected to represent New Zealand at an International Trade Challenge in Singapore in August, alongside eight other Asia Pacific countries and 3000 representatives.
Though not entirely sure of what the weekend would hold, he believed a presentation with question time would be involved.
He was "stoked" to be selected and was hopeful of making it through to the international challenge.
Next year, he would leave high school early to study commerce at the University of Otago.
