But it was far from a clinical performance by the Farah Palmer Cup side at Whitestone Contracting Stadium in Oamaru.
Cunningham, who lives in North Otago, was rapt to grab a double in front of her local crowd.
"Good to play in front of a home crowd, in front of a bunch of supporters, and it means a lot that they come along and watch women’s rugby."
There were patches of brilliance for the Spirit, especially in the first quarter when they scored 26 unanswered points.
But that was tempered with messy moments, falling off tackles and an inability to execute finishing touches.
"I think we definitely started off well and then I think once we’d put a few points on, we kind of just fell out of structure a little bit.
"Things got a bit messy. One thing that was talked about was dominating our tackles — getting lower — and I think in the second half we definitely [did] that."
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 into the game.
That was followed by Bella Rewiri-Wharerau banging down another to put the home side up 14-0 after 12 minutes.
The Whio, struggling to keep up with the Spirit’s pace, fell off tackles and were ill-disciplined — penalised for several high tackles.
But it did not bother the Spirit, who continued to steal the show.
Sheree Hume, who shuffled into first five with Maia Joseph out for the game, spotted a gap and made a blistering break.
She was brought down 5m out from the line, but the ball was recycled quickly to second five Keely Hill to score the Spirit’s third.
Their forwards were in the thick of everything with front-rowers Eilis Doyle and Paige Church making some robust carries and big hits.
Paige Church showed her running game too, heading down the left wing, and the ball eventually ended up in her sister Jamie’s hands to finish 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 frustrated the Spirit around the breakdown, forcing them into errors and extinguishing their running game.
But they 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 off the pedal, but they gathered themselves to extend the lead before the break.
Rewiri-Wharerau made a good carry and the ball found its way wide to Cunningham to lead 31-0 at the half.
The Whio started better after the break with a massive scrum. They shifted it to winger Eva Martin who dropped it when she went to ground the ball.
Another opportunity arose but the Spirit ripped it away.
Leah Miles, who was strong all game, quickly shifted it to Jamie Church who bolted.
The Spirit failed to make anything from the opportunity, knocking the ball on after a lineout, and were guilty of not being urgent enough.
Cunningham finally got them back on track, scoring her second of the day, and Charlotte Va’afusuaga, a year 12 pupil at St Hilda’s, rounded out the scoring.
Farah Palmer Cup
The scores
Otago Spirit 41
Cheyenne Cunningham 2, Tegan Hollows, Bella Rewiri-Wharerau, Keely Hill, Jamie Church, Charlotte Va’afusuaga tries; Georgia Cormick 3 con
Taranaki Whio 0
Halftime: Spirit 31-0
