Chanelle O’Sullivan has only lived in the Upper Clutha for a few weeks but she feels right at home.

The mum-of-two has gained a name for herself online with her Instagram account, but her social media handle - “just a farmer’s wife” - doesn’t paint the whole picture.

The “just” is in jest, of course. Anyone who’s ever met a farmer’s wife knows how busy they always are, and what a range of roles they have.

Chanelle moved from Pleasant Point, South Canterbury, to the Hawea area about eight weeks ago with her husband Dave and the couple’s two children, when Dave took up a job managing a nearby station.

“The name [justafarmerswife] came about because I run a group with 12,000 rural women across New Zealand - Farming Mums NZ - and quite often women felt treated as ‘just’ a farmer’s wife,” she explained. “It’s very sarcastic. Any woman living on a farm wears many hats at any one time.”

The group started in 2013 and has been a helpful hub for Chanelle to both stay connected with like-minded people and also work in the industry she loves.

She is involved in a number of aspects of the farming and agriculture industries, independently from her husband’s career. As well as managing the Facebook group, she works in social media and marketing for different agriculture businesses, runs the family’s Airbnb in Twizel, works with Farmstrong on improving the life of farming families and has a few other business ideas simmering away.

Her children, seven-year-old Isabelle and four-year-old Hunter, also make sure she’s busy every day — and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Chanelle with children Isabelle and Hunter.

Chanelle knows first-hand how isolating farming life can be, not just for the farmer but for the whole family. It often involves moving away from friends and relatives, sometimes regularly, constantly leaving support networks behind. Her Farming Mums Facebook group works as a stable support system for those in that position.

The last couple of months have also been an example of how much Chanelle benefits from the support of that online community. Uprooting the family from Pleasant Point, all the way to Hawea, wasn’t easy but she’s happy to find her feet again now in the Upper Clutha.

The region, she says, ticks all her boxes. “I love it here. It’s been a full on few months but I’m loving it. We love the outdoors. Every 10kms, there’s another DOC sign with another walk or a river or something to explore and that really suits us,” she said. “And I love that you can take dogs on so many tracks down here.”

Living just outside Hawea, she says she gets the best of both worlds: the quietness of countryside living and the convenience of having everything she needs nearby, whether she turns on the road to Cromwell or Wanaka.

Born and bred in Auckland, Chanelle always knew she’d grow up to live in a rural setting. She remembers visiting a farming station while on a family holiday in the South Island, as a child, and deciding right there and then that was the kind of place where she’d live as an adult.

She moved from Auckland to Canterbury on her own, via a detour to study agriculture in Hamilton, and met her now-husband Dave not long after arriving in the south. She never looked back.

“The thought of traffic makes my heart race. I hate wasting time,” she said, when asked about what turns her off city living. “I just don’t like the rat race.”

Animals and the outdoors have always been a true passion for Chanelle. Her first job was at a pet store, then she became a vet nurse, and is now farming.

“I love the outdoors aspect of farming. You do something different every day,” she said.

“I’d suffocate in a 9-to-5 job. I know some people really like routine. Sometimes I wish I did too but it’s just the way I work, I have to have ten things on the go.”

It’s probably a few more than ten at the moment, but it’s too hard to keep track as Chanelle continues to say yes to all the opportunities that come her way — and then thinks up new ones in whatever spare time she gets.

One of her goals is to get better at taking time for herself, and she is encouraging all other rural women in New Zealand to do the same. She’s recently worked with Farmstrong on a nationwide survey to understand the struggles and needs of farming families. The survey found that, for farming mums in particular, one of the main struggles is the guilt that comes from… well, everything.

“Guilt that comes from being away from the farm, guilt from being away from the kids, the typical mum guilt,” Chanelle said. “Self-care is also tied to self-confidence. It then plays off in your family and everything else you do, but it’s easier said than done.”

Chanelle is using her Facebook group to remind women to take time to do things they love, one thing a day, whatever that is. The important thing is that you find your one thing. Just one thing. But remember: the “just” is sarcastic.

PHOTOS: Supplied