This article reports on a research study of the perception of work stress among twelve participant primary school teachers in the Wellington region in New Zealand. Specifically, it focuses on the way the participants' perceive work stress and its contributing factors, and the coping strategies they employ. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was chosen to analyse semi-structured interview data. The interviews examined the way teachers make sense of their stress experiences and five overarching themes emerged: (i) teaching as relentless work, (ii) intrinsic motivation as sustaining factor, (iii) reality of high stress levels, (iv) emotional elements of teaching, and (v) lack of desirability of teaching role. This study shows that the participant teachers' perceived stress ranged from moderate to high levels due to high workload, multiple sources of stress, the emotional demands of the role and the frustration and constraints they face in role performance. In contrast, however, the participants also derived joy from their role and used positive coping mechanisms to cope with work demands. This study found that certain positive coping strategies, such as teaching experience, cognitive reframing, and seeking social support, are learned over time and come with experience. This article contributes to the literature on teacher stress in the New Zealand context and offers recommendations for mitigating stress and supporting the well-being of primary school teachers.