When it comes to characters, it is hard to go past the heavy wagon trail on the Otago Goldfields Cavalcade.
Whether it is a one-legged non-horse-enthusiast trail boss or an American woodworker who has helped build full-size historic ship replicas, personalities on the trail abound.
Trail boss Tony Cumberbeach's chosen mode of travel was a pick-up truck rather than the more prevalent horse or wagon.
''I wouldn't have a horse for a wart on my arse,'' Mr Cumberbeach, of Dunedin, confided during a stop on a farm between Clarks Junction and Hindon yesterday morning.
More than 70 people were on the trail, including American Fred Asplen and two Australian visitors.
It was Mr Cumberbeach's ''10th or 11th'' year as trail boss and it was the people who kept him coming back year after year.
Those attracted to the heavy wagon trail were generally ''cruisy'' and they enjoyed plenty of laughs over the week.
He first became involved in the cavalcade in support roles and then stepped up as trail boss when there was no-one to take over.
Mr Cumberbeach reckoned it was time for someone else to ''have a go now''.
''Things have slowed up,'' he said, in reference to the recent amputation of his right leg, 34 years after a motorcycle accident.
His leg kept developing arthritis and he ''ran out of options'', having the leg amputated just below the knee in November last year.
While he was still learning to adjust to life without it, there was no chance he was going to miss the cavalcade.
''Hell, I was coming on this. I already told them that, with or without a leg,'' he said.
Another happy cavalcader was Mr Asplen, whose grin was nearly as vast as the rural Otago landscape through which he was travelling.
A passenger on Snow Cleaver's wagon, pulled by five Clydesdale horses, Mr Asplen (65), from Kentucky, was having an ''awesome'' time.
About five years ago, he came to New Zealand as a wwoofer (willing workers on organic farms) and stayed with the sister of a cavalcader.
He had always wanted to come to New Zealand - ''I wish I came in my 20s, I'd still be here,'' he said ruefully - and he loved the experience.
This year, he decided to return to visit his friends and co-ordinated this with the cavalcade.
As the heavy wagon trail traversed farmland with distinctive rocky tors, Mr Asplen described the countryside as ''unbelievable''.
The cavalcade finishes on Saturday with hundreds of riders, wagoners and walkers from nine trails converging on Outram.
