But on the weekends, the 61-year-old listens to heavy metal music and is a New Zealand record-breaking powerlifter.
"Most of my colleagues don’t know that I do this. It’s my great secret. You’re about to out me."
She was one of about 50 powerlifters competing at the New Zealand Powerlifting South Island three-lift and benchpress championships in Dunedin at the weekend, where she broke a string of provincial and South Island back squat records before setting a New Zealand back squat record of 95.5kg in the 84kg Masters 3 class.
She went on to set a New Zealand benchpress record in the class of 63kg.
She was surprised to break the powerlifting records because she was still recovering from major knee surgery late last year.
"I’m not planning on going to nationals this year, but I’m hoping to go to the Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships in Canada next year.
"I’m the Commonwealth title and record holder in the 72kg class, so I’d like to go back and defend those titles and crank the records up a bit — seeing as I just beat those records today."
She said part of her secret to lifting a metal bar with the equivalent weight of a fridge-freezer on one end and an oven range on the other, was listening to heavy metal music before she took the stage.
"Heavy metal music gets my endorphins running."
Being able to lift such heavy weights would make her a useful furniture mover, she joked. But clearly, that was not the reason she got into powerlifting three years ago.
"My son could see that I was getting really stooped and old, and he said if I wanted to see my grandchildren grow up, I needed to get rid of some weight and get fit.
"So he dragged me along to Crossfit Uncut and I lost 20kg in 18 months.
"I got into lifting because it’s so much a part of crossfit, and I wanted to get better at it.
"I did some competitions and realised I was kind of OK at it, so I just kept going."
Apart from successfully making a lift, the best reward was being able to enjoy eating a chocolate bar "legitimately and guilt-free" afterwards, she said.
