The world record for solving a three by three Rubik's cube in a competition is seven seconds.
Luke Main nailed his 25-move solve in 17 seconds
Luke will have to break the sub-10 second barrier to win New Zealand's first ever speed cubing champs at Te Papa this weekend.
Competitors have been known to lubricate their cubes to attain faster speeds. Dene Beardsley from the World Cube Association will be on hand in Wellington to make sure everything is above board.
With 43 quintillion possible combinations, fluking a solve is near impossible. Luke uses algorhythms - sets of moves he has memorised to solve the cube from any position.
Once you have mastered the standard three-by-three Rubik's cube, there is a never-ending supply of 3D pentagons, cubes and pyramids to be figured out.
The cube was invented 35 years ago by architect Erno Rubik, but it has got a new lease of life thanks to web-based chat groups, where cubers share their times and techniques.
Luke says: “I enjoy it because it gives me something to achieve better on all the time. You know you can get better on it because other people have done it faster than you. It's kind of like challenging the world at something.”
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