She may not have a fairy godmother, but this Tauranga teen has an adventurous grandmother who made sure she would have the grandest entrance.
Seventeen-year-old Kirsten Holmes will be turning up to the Tauranga Girls' College ball tonight in a McLeod crane.
The idea came from her grandmother Val Baker, Kirsten said, after they discussed possible exciting transportation to her school ball.
"Originally I wanted to go on horseback, because I ride horses, but we decided it was too unpredictable and I didn't want to get my dress dirty.
"I was on holiday at Lake Rotoiti and my grandma text me and said 'you're going to the ball in a crane!".
Kirsten said her grandmother had been talking to Dean Wright, a fellow horse rider with Kirsten who also worked at McLeod cranes, and they had dreamt up the idea together.
"It's not the first time she's done something like this," Kirsten laughed.
Kirsten's mother Deborah Holmes said her mother's plan was "just typically grandma".
"She's all about having fun," she said.
"She's never happier than when she's planning her next adventure. And she always wants her grandchildren to have fun."
This is not the first outrageous transport stunt she has pulled, hiring a helicopter for Kirsten's brother Bryce to fly to school in for his second-to-last day of primary school, back in 2007.
Kirsten said reactions from girls at school had been mixed when she had told them the plan.
"The reaction varies from person to person. Some people say 'that's so cool!' and other people are like 'a crane? really?'".
She was excited, but slightly apprehensive this morning as she saw the crane for the first time.
"It's huge," she said, "It's not exactly subtle."
"I'm just hoping the blue doesn't clash with my dress."
Crane driver Justin Martin said a crane had been used once before for a school ball drop-off a number of years ago for a worker's son, but he was looking forward to seeing the girls reactions.
"Usually boys get more excited about this kind of stuff, big machinery and trucks."
Kirsten said a lot of girls had planned to arrive in old style cars to the ball at Baypark this year.
She hadn't had any transport thoughts about the Tauranga Boys' College ball in August and said she wasn't sure she could go any bigger.
"I don't know if you can top a crane."