"I had always been quite physical anyway and had done a lot of sport and grown up on a farm. I was no stranger to that kind of hard work and I really felt like I needed to be out there in the community and helping people more.
"After that ride along I was absolutely hooked so I applied to join the fire service and away I went."
Being the first female fire fighter at the New Plymouth station presented its own challenges.
"In the first couple of years that I was in the fire service I really immersed myself into the role. I left all of the hairdressing industry and that image behind and just focused on being a firefighter, but after a few years I missed that side of me," she said.
It was when Utumapu learned of the Look Good Feel Better (LGFB) charity that she found a way to combine her two passions.
"An aunty of mine was going through cancer treatment and had been to a Look Good Feel Better workshop and I thought that was something I might like to do.
"Straight away I jumped into the LGFB tutor role and the cool thing is I have brought it to the fire service because a few of the firefighters' wives have become volunteers."
Utumapu also subsequently started a not-for-profit company, The New Hair Project, providing wigs for cancer patients.
"Being a firefighter is such a varied job and we get to see so many things that other people just wouldn't see; you might go to a car accident or a normal old fire alarm going off, but there is always something unusual that happens in our job," she said.
"But the reason I like these other projects is because it is so hugely removed from what I am doing at work.
"I have my family which is a haven, I have Look Good Feel Better and The New Hair Project which are also havens, and then I have got my fire service work.
"Because they are all so different, I reckon I have a fantastic balance in my life."
