About

I’m just a small town girl born and bred in Methven, New Zealand. Mid Canterbury’s a beautiful area and famous for its rodeo’s and in winter, skiing at Mt Hutt.

After moving through to Christchurch, I settled into a career of sales and marketing when, in 2001 I made the move into the world of real estate where I have worked some pretty long hours to stay a top achiever for my company, Harcourts. This pic of me was when I achieved my AREINZ certification. I’ve since gone on to finish my Diploma in Business Studies – after 4 years part time study at University.

In 2004 I took off to Europe on a 12 month sabbatical  to work in the high octane world of motorsport. I’d had some fun racing RX7 cars in Christchurch, and thought I’d head overseas and chase a dream of working in Formula 1 – we Kiwi’s love to travel! While I didn’t end up working in F1, (I worked for a time in British Rallying and also managed a young New Zealand driver), I did hear about Richard Branson’s plans to take paying passengers into space…

Virgin Galactic territory.

It was probably no real surprise to family and friends when, in 2006, I told them that I had signed up to become a founding astronaut with Virgin Galactic….and am now destined to be New Zealand’s first female in space.

In 2007 I headed over to NASTAR (National Aerospace Training and Research Center) in Philidelphia to attend my first round of centrifuge training. It was a blast and you can check out my training videos on SpaceGirl TV – that guy filming me is actually Hollywood Director (and a fellow astronaut) Bryan Singer. Thankfully I made it to Graduation and received my wings.

In the leadup to the flights, I’ve been staying fit, attending various events in the USA (lots of frequent flyer miles) and staying in touch with Mission Control.

As a result of this rather significant event in my life, I am now fulfilling my love of creating something out of nothing and am building a business around my brand ‘Space Girl’.

In addition to filming and producing my documentary ‘Adventures of a Space Girl’,  I also get to write and pitch proposals to Corporate sponsors, post blogs on  Facebook and Twitter, upload videos to my YouTube channel ‘SpaceGirl TV’ and am getting pretty busy on the Speaking circuit where I love to share my philosophy on life, my passion and my sense of humour about the obstacles I’ve overcome that got me to here.

In addition to my business interests though, I’m also  involved with a charity that is close to my heart. Earlier in 2009 I was appointed a Director for Hagar NZ, a Swiss-based charity which provides after-care for girls and children trafficked into the sex industry. Human Trafficking is the second largest source of illegal income worldwide exceeded only by drugs trafficking, and over 1.2 million children are trafficked every year. So this is a role I take seriously and a topic I am hugely passionate about. Hagar’s work saves lives and is a charity I am enormously proud to be working with.

But usually it’s my profile as New Zealand’s Space Girl that sees me speaking to audiences of all ages and from all walks of life and I love inspiring and motivating them to go out and achieve their own worthwhile goal.

A favourite quote of mine is ‘Dream it. Believe it. Achieve it’. For me, these words sum up why our attitude is so important to our success in life. Flying into space at 3000 miles an hour may not be your thing, but regardless of your goal, the basic principles of success don’t change.

So what’s your dream?…