Her travel plans are very Pacific.

• Author: Bartlett, Marie
• Position: PEOPLE - Travel Services

Burdened by family problems and unfulfilling work, Karolyn Wrightson struck out in 1996 to find a new direction. "I spent three months in the Australian outback and fell in love with the landscape and the people."

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EssentialDownUnder, her Weaverville-based Internet travel agency, specializes in creating customized trips to places such as Australia and New Zealand. Most of her customers have traveled abroad but find arranging a trip to the South Pacific daunting. "Logistics, for example, are a major issue," she says. "When clients try to plan and book a complicated itinerary in Australia or New Zealand, it gets confusing."

Many of the trips center on travelers' hobbies and interests. "I had a geologist client who wanted to follow the Alpine Fault across New Zealand." She had one who loved glowworms, so she arranged for a trip that took him to caves in which the bugs live all over Australia.

The daughter of a Baptist preacher, Wrightson, 61, grew up in the Midwest and in the South, including Gastonia. She received a bachelor's in English from Mississippi College 1964 and a master's in English from the University of...