But it was far from a clinical performance from the Farah Palmer Cup side at Whitestone Contracting Stadium in Oamaru.
Hometown hero Cheyenne Cunningham scored twice in front of her local home crowd, which included former Black Fern Kendra Cocksedge and the World Cup.
There were patches of brilliance for the Spirit, especially in the first quarter when they ran away with 26 unanswered points.
But that was tempered with messy moments and an inability to put the finishing touches to balls.
They will however be pleased to have kept the Whio off the scoreboard. The Whio are yet to score in their first two Championship games.
The Spirit gave the Whio a taste of what they were in for when hooker Tegan Hollows broke off the back of a rolling maul to score five minutes in.
That was followed up by No 8 Bella Rewiri-Wharerau banging down another to put the home side up 14-0 after 12 minutes.
The Whio struggled to keep up with the Spirit’s pace, falling off tackles and were ill disciplined, penalised for several high-tackles throughout the half.
But it did not bother the Spirit who continued to put their foot down and put on an early show for the crowd.
Sheree Hume, who shuffled in to first five with Maia Joseph out for the game, spotted a gap and shuffled her way through, making a blistering break.
She was brought down 5m out from the line, but the ball was recycled quickly out to second five Keely Hill who scored the Spirit’s third.
The Spirit’s forwards were in the thick everything, with front rowers Eilis Doyle and Paige Church making some robust carries and big hits.
And they showed they can play run too, when Church charged up the field, making a nice break down the left wing. Support was not far away and the ball found its way to her sister, Jamie’s, hands on the wing who finished it off.
Suddenly the Spirit were up 26-0 after 20 minutes and were on fire.
Things started to cool down in the second quarter when the Whio found some structure.
They made a nuisance of themselves around the breakdown, frustrating the Spirit in to some uncharacteristic errors, and brought the Spirit’s free-flowing game to a halt.
But the visitors still struggled to find any territory and spent barely any time camped in their half.
It was more a case of the Spirit taking their foot of the pedal but they gathered themselves to extend the lead before the break.
Rewiri-Wharerau carried strongly and the ball found its way wide to Cunningham to lead 31-0 at the half.
The Whio came out strong and spent some decent minutes in their 22.
They had a massive scrum and moved the ball out to winger Eva Martin, who dropped it when she went to ground it.
They were working their way towards another opportunity to open their scoring until the Spirit ripped the ball free.
Leah Miles, who was strong all game, quickly shifted it wide for Jamie Church, who took off 60m up the field.
The failed to make anything from the opportunity, knocking the ball on after a line out, and were guilty of not being urgent enough to meet the ball.
Cunningham finally got the Spirit back on track in the 21st minute, scoring her second of the day and lead 36-0.
Charlotte Va’afusuaga, a year 12 pupil at St Hilda’s, scored late on debut as well to round out the win.
