KEY POINTS:
Many Kiwis move overseas to further their careers, but one New Zealand woman has reached a higher level than she ever expected, selling space travel for Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.
Nelson-born Carolyn Wincer began her tourism career in a local tourism office.
She had only been working for three years when she was head-hunted to be a tutor for the National Certificate in Tourism, at the age of 20.
She later moved to Wellington to work for a private tourism training school, but found the work less rewarding and set her sights on teaching in Thailand.
She was all booked to fly when the job fell through. A friend encouraged her to change her ticket and head for London instead, despite having little in her pocket and no work lined up.
She landed on her feet with a sales and research job at Virgin Limited Edition, the luxury arm of the Virgin Hotel Group.
It was a dream job, marketing Richard Branson's private collection of resorts, but the tourism industry was about to head for one of its toughest patches.
"Following the 9/11 attacks in the US, most of the people around me were being made redundant. I was offered a back office job in Branson's office making bookings for his privately owned resorts - my friends warned me the job would be boring but I have never looked back."
Wincer spent five-and-a-half years helping to build up the business, which includes the Necker Island resort in the British Virgin Islands, a Moroccan retreat and an African gamepark.
Last year she was offered the head of astronaut sales job for Virgin Galactic. "There aren't many agents who have experience in selling such expensive products, so I guess I was an obvious choice."
Since then, Wincer has spent much of her time travelling around the world, training and appointing local travel agencies and sales agents to sell space flights to the public.
Her flight home to Nelson for Christmas was her 97th flight for 2007 and this year is set to be just as busy.
Much of her time will be spent in the US, where she has already trained 47 space agents.
"We get a really great reception wherever we go. The one thing I love is the universal excitement about it.
"Even in India, where very few people can afford to do the flight, they loved it and it made headline news around the country, reaching half a billion people."
Much of her work is also educating people on the safety and training aspects of going into space.
All space travel agents are sent on a one-day course to learn how space flight technology works and the basics of how spacecraft work.
"They don't have to learn how an aeroplane works to sell flights or how hotels work but this is a whole other realm. They need to be able to explain it all in layman's terms."
The only accredited company in New Zealand is House of Travel, which has 10 agents throughout the country who can sell the product. So far, two flights have been sold, both to people in the Canterbury region.
Worldwide, around 250 people from 31 countries have paid to go on the space flights. Around half of them were from the US.
Test flights will start in April or May next year and are expected to take around 12 to 18 months.
The inaugural flight is scheduled for the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010. Richard Branson and his family will be going up in the first flight.
From then on, there will be six people per flight, as well as two pilots. The company has bought five spacecraft. The entire flight will take two-and-a-half hours and the astronauts will have about five minutes in space to enjoy free floating.
Wincer is not booked to go into space herself yet but she is hoping they will let her go up at some point.
While New Zealand will always be home, the 31-year-old says her next career move is likely to be to the US, where Virgin Galactic is establishing itself. Wincer says a key attribute for the job is to have incredible stamina for the constant flights and bags of enthusiasm.
"You have to have your own goal within the company goal.
"The thing I like about it is that you don't have to be an an aerospace engineer to get involved."
There are downsides to the job too. "You can't have commitments - you can't even have a goldfish."
Virgin Galactic space flights
* Passengers must undertake three days of training prior to the flight.
* The aircraft will be attached to a carrier for the first hour of the flight. It will then detach itself close to the edge of Earth's atmosphere.
* The aircraft will then reach the speed of sound in less than 10 seconds and nearly four times the speed of light in under 30 seconds.
* Passengers will experience acceleration G-forces before the aircraft's motor cuts out and will then have around four minutes to experience weightlessness in space.
* The entire trip is expected to last around 2 1/2 hours.
* It costs $254,000, including training.
* The first flights are expected to take off in 2010 after a series of test flights over the next 18 months.
* Each flight will carry six passengers and two pilots in an aeroplane environment.
* Tickets can be bought directly from Virgin Galactic or through the New Zealand-appointed travel agency House of Travel.
Carolyn Wincer
Head of astronaut sales for Virgin Galactic
Age: 32
Born: Nelson
Educated: Nelson Polytech
Career:
1994: At age 17 began working as a domestic travel consultant for a local tourism office in Nelson before being headhunted for a teaching position where she lectured in vocational travel and trained students in tourism qualifications.
2000: Moved to London and began working as a sales and reservations manager at Virgin Limited Edition where she was responsible for Richard Branson's private collection of luxury properties.
2006: Moved to Virgin Galactic and took up the position as head of astronaut sales where she is responsible for galactic sales worldwide.
