Every weekday morning, Ashleigh Lucas meets her four Brisbane-based colleagues at Frontline Hospitality before continuing her day as a senior recruitment consultant for North Queensland and the Northern Territory.
But Miss Lucas is not in Australia. She is more than 2500km away, working from an office in her new home in Oamaru.
In January, the 26-year-old moved from Brisbane to Oamaru to be with her partner Adam Halkett, after being in a long-distance relationship for about 18 months.
In a ''unique situation'', she was able to continue in her role as a senior recruitment consultant for Frontline Hospitality, but working remotely from Oamaru.
''I spoke to my boss [Pia Manwaring]. I said, 'Look I'm thinking about moving over there' ... and I suggested to her that we could try a remote situation, to see if that would work,'' she said.
Recruiting for mostly management-level roles for North Queensland and the Northern Territory, Miss Lucas had already been working remotely from Brisbane for four years, so the directors of the company approved the move.
''It was a really big risk,'' she said.
''It's been working so far, which is really exciting ... I'm just really grateful for the opportunity.''
Last week she was named consultant of the year and business development manager of the year for Queensland and Northern Territory hospitality.
Within the company's national network of about 110 employees she was the third-highest-billing consultant of the year.
She was also named runner-up hospitality consultant of the year for the whole company - which includes agencies in Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Perth.
Working remotely could be lonely and life in Oamaru was certainly a far cry from the hustle and bustle of Brisbane, she said.
''It's so different to what I'm used to, but it's awesome - it's such a cool town and I love how it's so much more laid back and people are so friendly,'' she said.
Most of her job was phone, email and Skype-driven.
''We do a lot of FaceTime communication - I'll facetime into the agency, we'll catch up for the morning, and then I'll do my own thing for the rest of the day, but there's always interaction, by emailing and lots of skyping,'' she said.
Growing up in Brisbane, she worked in clothing and jewellery retail after leaving high school.
She started working in recruitment four and a-half years ago.
''It's a really busy role, I might be working from home but there's definitely no time to relax,'' she said.
Miss Lucas is expecting her first child in December and will soon be going on maternity leave.
She is ''loving'' her new life in Oamaru, a town ''that has so much potential ... there's so much going on''.
