LynneWard might drive a massive 120-tonne dump truck for a living, yet the diminutive grandmother admits she is a "girly girl".
Her fingernails are painted a soft shade of pink and she sometimes wears lipstick, depending on how dusty it is at Oceana Gold's mine at Macraes.
"It's nice to have some feminine sides coming in," Ms Ward (51) said.
As she obliges for a photograph beside the Caterpillar 789C truck, she is dwarfed by its sheer size.
Worth about $4 million, the truck can carry a load of about 190 tonnes and just one tyre costs about $30,000 to replace.
The tyres are replaced after about a year of use. Climbing aboard requires scaling a ladder.
"My [4-year-old] grandson thinks it's awesome because his grandma drives a bigger truck than granddad," she laughed.
A self-confessed "wheels person", who also rides motorcycles, Ms Ward travels by bus from her home at Totara, just south of Oamaru, to work.
She will mark her second anniversary at the mine in June.
Her career background is varied and includes stints as a receptionist, bar manager, some retail work and some farm work.
A few years ago, she did a "seeding season" in Australia, during a working holiday, and drove some "big gear".
"I've always wanted to operate one of these rigs," she said.
As a child, she had seen big trucks as the town of Twizel was being formed.
"I thought I'd left my run too late. An opportunity came and I took it," she said.
There are 17 of the large trucks at the mine, including five smaller ones.
Drivers needed to keep aware of the conditions and their surroundings as they moved enormous quantities of material around the site.
"There's an element of danger ... but driving down the road is dangerous and we take that for granted really.
Here, we're doing everything we can to make it safe," Ms Ward said.
The trucks might be massive but everything at the mine was in a relevant scale.
"The roads are wider. Everything caters for big," she said.
It was a good working environment and her male colleagues were respectful towards women.
"I think having women in the workplace, it does give it a different dimension."
Some nights, the truck drivers held quizzes or other games in their trucks, which kept them alert.
Like any job, there were some mundane days and it was fortunate she liked her own company.
But it was always exciting, the roads were always changing and "you get to see the beautiful sunrises and sunsets".
Asked whether she now took the size of her work truck for granted, Ms Ward said: "You've got to pinch yourself and think, that's pretty big".
