Prince Harry and his wife Meghan took on an unusual challenge Tuesday when they joined local children at a gumboot throwing competition in Auckland.

The duchess won the clash easily, after tossing her gumboot about a metre further than her husband. The couple also received infant-sized gumboots for their first baby, which is due next year.  

Gumboot throwing, also called welly wanging, has been a - not completely serious - competitive sport in New Zealand for many years.

After spending two days in Wellington the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on Tuesday moved to New Zealand’s biggest city to dedicate a 20-hectare area of native bush to The Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy, a forest conservation initiative.

Later Harry and Meghan are planning to visit a charity that looks after children with parents in prison, go on a walkabout around Auckland Harbour and finish the day at a reception hosted by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

On Wednesday they are scheduled to head to Rotorua, nicknamed "Sulphur City" for its distinctive smell of rotten eggs, caused by the North Island city’s geothermal activity.