FROM CITYSLICKER TO COUNTRY GAL!
How Pip made the great leap
Some people move to a new house, others renovate – but when Philippa and Joe Cameron had their first child, they left their self-described “city slicker” life behind and moved to a 40,000-hectare high country farm in a town with fewer than 200 people.
There, with Joe’s father Hugh, they run 30,000 merino sheep and 500 cattle, and feed a team of farm workers who battle the elements every day.
Four years on and Philippa, a 39-year-old former teacher, is firmly ensconced in her new career as the station cook at Otematata, which includes starting her day at 5am to make smoko for the farm workers. She’s also a dedicated mum to Evelyn, four, and Flora, five.
Joe, 36, was no stranger to farming. He’s the fifth generation of Camerons to run the farm, but when he and Philippa met through mutual friends at an Otago pub in 2009, he was reveling in his career as a Jetstar pilot.
In fact, he used his aviation skills to woo his future wife.
Just a few weeks after they met, he tracked Philippa down at her friend’s farm in St Bathans to take her on a romantic adventure.
“I got a call from Joe, who said, ‘Is there an airstrip where you are?’” she recalls. “He picked me up behind the pub in a wee Cessna and flew me to Dunedin Airport for a sandwich for our first date... It did impress me,” she says with a laugh.
Farming was far from Joe’s mind back then. He’d been encouraged by his parents to try another career first and the couple enjoyed city life together, living in Melbourne then Christchurch. It was when Flora arrived that their focus changed. “We thought there was probably another life for us,” she shares.
That life in the Otago high country was never going to be an easy one, but it offered something they couldn’t have in the city. Philippa enthuses, “It’s the lifestyle. It’s calm, it’s so rewarding, the kids have space. And when the farm’s busy, they get to meet people they wouldn’t normally meet.”
This includes the woolhandling contingent who arrive in August. More than 20 workers descend on the farm during shearing season, staying on and off for three months. It’s a busy but happy time for Philippa, who admits she sometimes gets lonely.
She’s found friendship by joining committees and socialising with other mums at kindy. She also connects with others over her Instagram account @whats_for_smoko, where a following of 16,000 women – both urban and rural – tune in for her daily posts. These range from sustainability tips and recipes to lessons in wool handling.
“The majority of people are from Southland, but the next biggest group is from Auckland!” she says. “They love the romance of the high country.”
The account is also a place for Pip to share the message that being a farmer’s wife, a mother and a cook is not a step back for feminism, but a choice.
“Many women struggle to articulate that this is their job, because they think it isn’t modern to say they’re a stay-at-home mum who cooks for workers,” tells Philippa. “But it’s okay to be a farmer’s wife. If anything, it’s very worldly to want to be at home and create a warm and happy environment for your family.”
And she says the role of the station cook is crucial to the mental health of a sector that can suffer from isolation. “Your job is as important as everyone else’s because the team needs fuel, and feeding the team is also a good way to bring people together. A lot of young people are coming into the industry quite green now, and they need their chance to ask questions