Her husband got a job as an instructor at the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre and then at Venturelodge in Ohakune, while Ms Stier worked as a teacher at local schools and did some catering for corporate groups using Venturelodge.
As a coeliac sufferer, Ms Stier has developed gluten-free versions of many traditional European baked goods.
She said that, when she started her catering company 10 years ago, there was nothing on the market for gluten-free cooking, but there were now plenty of coeliac-friendly products available and nothing inferior about the flavour of them.
Baking has always been a family affair for Ms Stier. She remembers from her childhood the way her family would work like an assembly line to bake things.
Her Estonian parents were refugees of World War II and she was born in London but grew up in Canada, where her father had secured the right to work.
When the Chronicle called in to the Back Door Bakery on Monday, Ms Stier was packing 380 speculaas biscuits she had baked the previous day.
Speculaas are among the various German, Dutch, Scandinavian and Italian cookies and pastries she makes and sells at her bakery.
She also supplies The Blind Finch in Ohakune with delectable cakes and sells freshly baked breads at the Raetihi Country Market, which is held on the third Saturday of each month.
And her new challenge is paleo food. Ms Stier has developed guilt-free "clean treats" such as a paleo panforte packed with nuts, dried fruit, honey, cocoa and medieval spices.
She has won the award for best carrot cake at the Ohakune Carrot Festival three times, and this, along with various European dessert cakes, can be made to order.
Ms Stier has posters advertising her bakery at i-Sites in Raetihi, Ohakune and Whanganui, and she also hands them out to backpackers who visit the business for them to distribute at hostels as they travel the country.
The word seems to be spreading. Two months ago, for example, she was working in her garden and heard a man speaking Estonian. He was walking the Te Araroa trail while visiting New Zealand and saw the bakery advertised at a hostel.
People with holiday homes in the area have become regular customers, as well as those who knew about Ms Stier's baking from her Ohakune days. "When we purchased this property [in Raetihi], people starting asking me whether I was baking again."
Ms Stier has set up a Facebook page for the Back Door Bakery, where people can find out about her latest offerings.