Chelsea Pearse is having a busy time after moving to Wairoa late last year.
The 22-year-old and her partner, Waihua Valley Road farmer Luke Swann, welcomed baby Jack into the world on Boxing Day – some nine days ahead of due date.

Earlier last year, Chelsea completed her Bachelor of Nursing at the Eastern Institute of Technology. Now she’s looking forward to March 25, when she’ll celebrate getting her degree at EIT’s graduation ceremony in Napier.

Raised on the family farm in Tutira, Chelsea was a boarder at Napier Girls’ High School. When it came to career options, she wanted to go farming but her parents told her she should get “a trade” first.

Her mother, Alison Pearse, is a nurse working for a Maori health provider in Napier and her Nan was also a nurse. Chelsea was attracted to nursing because, she says, she knew the training would allow her to “work almost anywhere in the world”.

Nursing is also a flexible qualification, offering job opportunities in hospitals, medical practices, community health services and other areas. And then there’s the option of short-term contracts if the family decides to spend some time travelling overseas.

But right now, Chelsea’s happily settling into her new home. “Growing up on a farm, I love the lifestyle and Wairoa is great – nice and small and close to good beaches.”

It’s just the place, in fact, to raise young Jack, who’s proving an easy baby – “I can put him in the backpack and off I go.”

Now that she’s finished her degree, Chelsea is welcoming opportunities for working on the farm while Jack is young. Eventually, she intends to work as a nurse in the Wairoa area, perhaps in a community nursing role.

So she’s pleased she heeded her parents’ advice and enrolled at EIT.

“I found studying really good. EIT’s campus is really nice and the BN nursing programme covered the theory stages we needed before going out on practicum.”

So although caring for Jack is keeping Chelsea fully occupied, she says being a nurse graduate makes her feel more independent. “I know that eventually I can do my own thing as well.”