The 16-year-old Mount Aspiring College pupil is part of the New Zealand freeskiing development team targeting the introduction of the freeski halfpipe at the next Winter Olympics at Sochi, Russia.
Known to her family and friends as Mikey, Austin started out as an alpine racer before switching to the more aerial and park-feature freestyle disciplines.
The freestyle disciplines of skiing - big mountain, slopestyle and halfpipe - have boomed in popularity in recent years but have been largely ignored by FIS and Winter Olympics administrators.
However, in July FIS delegates voted to introduce the halfpipe at the 2014 games.
Austin is one of New Zealand's few rising female freeski athletes competing in a male-dominated arena in a sport seemingly populated by younger and younger athletes.
She has been taken under the tutelage of coach Bruce Wells, father of Wanaka's high-profile freeskiing duo the Wells brothers.
After carding a pair of top-10 finishes at recent Association of Freeski Professionals-sanctioned early-season events at her home skifield of Cardrona Alpine Resort, Austin is the third internationally ranked female in halfpipe and fifth in slopestyle.
New Zealand's top female freeskiers are Queenstown-based skier-X racer Mitchey Grieg and Australian-born big mountain exponent Janina Kuzma, who is also respected for her skills in the park discipline of halfpipe.
Austin is gunning to join the pair and be part of the top echelon of New Zealand's freeski team.
If her early freeski results are anything to go by, she is well on her way.
She won New Zealand junior titles across the three disciplines of skier-X, slopestyle and big mountain in 2008, 2009 and this year.
At the recent Junior World Championships, despite competing with an injured calf muscle, she was the top-ranked Kiwi girl, finishing eighth in skier-X and fifth in the halfpipe.
Oddly enough, Austin first started out on the mountain as a snowboarder - until her older brother Sam helped her see the light and got her on to skis.
"He thought I'd be better on skis, so I started race-training when I was about 7 and then got into freeskiing once I was about 13,"Austin has been part of Cardrona's High Performance Centre run by freeski coach Pete Legnavsky for the past few years.
The centre has produced talents such as Jossi and Byron Wells and Lyndon and Amy Sheehan, as well as others.
Along the way Austin has also been backed by local skiing outfits such as Racer's Edge and her talent has been recognised by international brands such as Sportif.
While Mikey says she also enjoys the more traditional sports of netball and swimming - she also joined social start-up rugby and cricket teams at MAC alongside her friends - they don't compare to the "adrenaline" freeskiing provides and the feeling that comes after perfecting a challenging aerial trick.
Riding Cardrona's Olympic-standard halfpipe and flying through the air off the field's massive terrain park jumps provide her with a thrill unlike any other sport, she says.
