Three-year-old Harry Bishop was picking, but most certainly not eating, strawberries for the Christmas pavlova.

A New Plymouth berry farm sold out of pick-your-own strawberries in 15 minutes as hundreds hit the rows to get their Christmas berries.

WhenParadise Berry Farm owners Steve and Kathleen Smith opened at 9am, the paddock car park was already at its capacity of 120 cars and more cars were lined the road outside.

Steve Smith had to close the pick-your-own 15 minutes later. But don't despair - it will be open on Christmas Eve, Smith said.

Glenn Jeffrey/Fairfax NZ If you wanted to pick your own berries you had just 15 minutes before they were picked out.

"It is our main pick-your-own day tomorrow, so we will have more blocks open. We'll have a bigger patch. And a little more for late comers in afternoon. Hopefully we'll be open all day. As soon as I see people coming with light coloured fruit I shut [the pick-your-own]. It's a bit of a juggling act."

But there's still plenty of packed fruit, he said.

Three-year-old Harry Bishop, with a little help from sister Cassidy, 6, checked each berry carefully before he picked them.

Glenn Jeffrey/Fairfax NZ Stephanie Burgess, left, of New Plymouth got in early to get her strawberries but found everyone else had the same idea.

They were for the Christmas pavlova, Harry, who wants a toy drone for Christmas, said.

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Harry reckons the best thing about strawberries is picking them.

Glenn Jeffrey/Fairfax NZ Crowds of berry hunters packed out Paradise Berry farm in New Plymouth on Sunday.

Stephanie Burgess was out early picking strawberries for her children's grandparents who were over from England, she said.

"I thought we'd beat the rush, so we came out at 9 o'clock. But there were already cars for Africa."

Smith said this season has been better than the last couple of years.

Glenn Jeffrey/Fairfax NZ Strawberries are the king of berries two days before Christmas.

"Last year we were all over in a week's time and the year before it was cold, so we didn't have a lot of fruit."

He has raspberries, boysenberries and blue berries, but strawberries are the favourite, he said.

Smith's preferred way to eat strawberries are straight from ground, while they are warm from the sun. He doesn't see any need to add chocolate sauce or icing sugar.

This is the couple's 15th year at the Berry Farm and they could never grow enough for the Christmas rush, he said.

"You're always going to run out. We flushed three weeks ago, so the most you're going to get in a day was three weeks ago. They're starting tailing down now. It doesn't happen for Christmas. The flush is always the end of November or beginning of December. If we had what was coming off three weeks ago..."

He has no idea how many strawberries he sold, Smith said.