She and husband Alan live on a sheep station near Patearoa, where he works, and she drives for about two hours to Middlemarch and her job as principal of Strath Taieri School.
But her commute is about to become longer - much longer. She has just taken a promotion, which next year will see her become principal at Hinds School in Mid Canterbury, and leader of the Mid Canterbury Technology Centre.
The centre provides technology for year 7 and 8 pupils in a cluster of 11 schools in the area.
Mrs McIntyre said the weekly commute from the farm to Hinds would be about four hours each way.
''Alan will stay at the farm and I will commute for the first however long,'' she said.
Their life had always been her husband working in the high country and ''me travelling to wherever I work''.
''So this is nothing new.''
''We lived at Godley Peaks Station, which is a way up the west side of Lake Tekapo, and I commuted down to Fairlie to teach; then we lived at Hukarere Station, which is very isolated up the back of Heriot, and I travelled through to Balfour.''
Their two children were now grown up. She said she would not have considered applying for the Hinds job if they were still young.
Rather than travel to and from work daily, she would now come home to Patearoa only at weekends.
Mrs McIntyre, who has been principal at Strath Taieri School for the past 11 years, said she would miss her pupils, but she was looking forward to the new job.
''It's an exciting challenge, but I will be sad to leave the area.
''The kids here have been fantastic. I'll really miss the kids and the community - great country kids.''
The long commutes would continue indefinitely, or until her husband decided it was too far away and moved somewhere closer.
''We don't know. It's amazing - when you do move, other opportunities open up.
''But we're happy just to go with the flow for now.''
