Eat your heart out, Cinderella

The 540kg record-breaker with (from left) Caitlyn Collins, Hollie Rainford, Sam Holmes, Emma Rainford, Holly Dorresteyn, Chloe Collins, Amber Rainford, Toby Rainford and Ethan Holmes. Photo / Supplied

It took 94 days to grow and weighs more than half a tonne. And it's New Zealand's biggest.

The pumpkin above, which would give Cinderella's carriage a run for its money, was grown by a man in Taupo "just for the heck of it".

"I thought, 'Why not?"'Robbie Dorresteyn said.

So he started to grow a pumpkin in his back garden, fed it organic fertiliser and watched it grow to 540kg.

"I checked it every day. It's like a baby, you know. It stresses you out, but I'm glad it's all over," he told the Herald.

On Saturday, he had a justice of the peace verify its weight after using a tractor to lift it onto the scales.

It broke the record of New Zealand's biggest pumpkin, held by John McKay with his 497kg whopper in a competition at Mapua Tavern, near Nelson, at the end of last month.

"I think John McKay's a bit hacked off with me at the moment, but that's the way these things go. Someone's always going to get better and bigger."

Mr Dorresteyn has been growing pumpkins for three years, but has never managed one this big.

"I got interested in these sorts of things from reading things in magazines and looking what they do over in the United States," he said.

"My parents had been growing red tomatoes for a number of years, so I just thought I'd get into that because I like to get into big stuff."

He plans to take the pumpkin to Auckland to show it off at the Royal Easter Show next weekend and he has his fingers crossed that someone else won't turn up with a heavier one.

Mr Dorresteyn doesn't know what to do with the pumpkin after the show and is open to suggestions.

"My brother's in Clevedon and a few restaurants around there are pretty interested in having it. Or I might just put it in the front garden so people can come and have a look at it."