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While Prue, Lady Wallis admits she's had to "clear the decks a bit" since her aviation entrepreneur husband Sir Tim Wallis crashed his Spitfire into the ground nearly 16 years ago and sustained a serious head injury, she is reluctant to take praise for the enormous role she has played in her husband's's recovery and the full life he still leads.
"We play the hand we're dealt," Lady Wallis says.
"Most people find that when their circumstances change ... Tim hit the ground and that was instant change ... I believe not many people really do turn their backs on a nasty situation."
Lady Wallis - who gave up a successful research career in the film industry in London in exchange for a vastly different lifestyle in Wanaka after marrying Sir Tim - had to re-evaluate her priorities after her husband's 1996 plane crash, which left his personality intact, but compromised his ability to do the things he had done previously.
"While still being actively engaged in the things I'm interested in, I've had to cut back on involvements which take me away from Wanaka and I have to make space in my life to support him in the things he's still doing," she says.
"It's a constant liaising backwards and forwards [with Sir Tim's nurses and others in his support team] and the decision making and the planning largely falls on me. But of course it does, I'm his next of kin, I'm his wife.
"The nature of my primary role as his wife changed dramatically with his head injury, in terms of his need to be able to continue to live a full and active and happy life."
Despite leading a comparatively quiet lifestyle now, Sir Tim is still in demand.
"He still has a relatively high profile because of what he achieved before 1996. A lot of people still want to see him, want him to go to things often.
"In order to do everything that is asked of him he requires support and often my presence. Our relationship has become much more about teamwork since the accident."
Lady Wallis has contributed to many local and national committees and organisations, including as an early president of Wanaka's ski club, a former trustee of the Aspiring Arts and Culture Trust and other arts-related organisations, a current trustee of the New Zealand National Parks and Conservation Foundation, and a supporter of type 1 diabetes research.
Her role as a founding trustee and deputy chairwoman for Wanaka's Festival of Colour is one she is particularly enthusiastic about, and more recently, she and Sir Tim became patrons of a Burnham Army Camp Limited Service Volunteer youth development programme.
Photography, film editing, travel, regular gym workouts, writing and her six grandchildren also factor in to her busy schedule.
Sir Tim is no longer actively involved in the family business the Alpine Group, of which the couple's four sons are now the directors, but as "founder and adviser, he's off to the office every day".