Wet and miserable weather across much of Otago yesterday may have presented a sense of foreboding for many secondary school pupils as they received their 2016 NCEA exam results.
But for four young Dunedin women, the results were a welcome ray of joy.
There was a feeling of relief for NCEA level 3 candidates Georgia Auckram, Jade Fielding, Jamie Burrows and Ali Higham, not only in that they had passed with results better than expected, but also that their secondary education was now complete.
''It's time to celebrate now,'' Jade said, after achieving NCEA level 3 endorsed with excellence.
''It's been a good five years at high school and NCEA is officially over. Now I'm looking forward to university study.''
Ali said there was a moment of anxiety as she tried to access her results on the New Zealand Qualifications Authority website yesterday, but found access was being delayed by a ''system maintenance requirement''.
The message came up because she was one of nearly 170,000 pupils nationwide who were trying to access their results at the same time.
However, 10 minutes later, her results came up and the celebrations began.
The four went out for lunch together yesterday, to celebrate their achievements and the milestone.
Marked NCEA exam papers will be returned to pupils from late January.
After receiving marked papers, pupils can apply for reviews and reconsiderations of their results until February 17.
Those who sat New Zealand Scholarship exams can view their results online from Wednesday, February 8, and apply for reviews and reconsiderations until March 3.
National achievement statistics will be made available on the NZQA website when they are prepared at the end of March.
