The story of the pumpkin hanging in mid-air on Napier Hill

Curious onlookers at the address of Karen Sole have marvelled in recent days at the size of the pumpkin and how it has managed to stay suspended in the air for so long. Photo / Michael Rodda

The future of a lonely pumpkin that tried to escape its owner by growing over a Napier Hill fence is up in the air, somewhat literally.

Curious onlookers at the address of Karen Sole have marvelled in recent days at the size of the pumpkin and how it has managed to stay suspended in the air for so long.

Sole, who did not want the pumpkin's exact location to be divulged lest it meet an untimely end, said she noticed the odd start to its life when it started to sprout, but " didn't really take much notice of it".

Pumpkin owner Karen Sole said she did notice it growing like that at the beginning but didn't really take much notice. Photo / Georgia May Gilbertson

"Then over time I noticed the plant starting to creep over the wall and that's when I noticed that the pumpkin was pulling it and making the plant grow over the wall."

The main fear now for the pumpkin, and anyone who happened to be walking in the area, is that at any moment it could drop.

If it does, it's unlikely the brave pumpkin's journey will have a Cinderella ending.

"I can't quite tell when it will be ripe and when it is most likely to fall," Sole said.

The main fear now for the pumpkin is that at any moment it could drop. Photo / Georgia May Gilbertson

"I think over the Easter period I will have to work to put something under it just to protect it in case it does fall because I don't really want to have seen it all that time and have a smashed pumpkin."

Sole and the pumpkin's predicament is a city-enforced one. She love to grow her own vegetables, but only has a small piece of land to work with.

"I have had that plant for a while but it hasn't really grown many pumpkins since I've had it and I think the one that's growing over the fence is probably the biggest that has come from that plant."

A spokesperson from Oderings Garden Centre in Napier said as long as the plant is happy and healthy it could grow and hold onto a pumpkin, anywhere.

"I suppose as long as the plant gets enough sunlight, water and has strong enough roots to hold it there and give it enough nutrition it will most likely continue to grow happily."