David Neynens said he was ''surprised and honoured'' to be a recipient of a $5000 travelling scholarship from the Queenstown-based Pat Farry Rural Health Education Trust to help fund his elective travel in the first term of 2014.
Mr Neynens and fellow scholarship recipient Rebecca Craw, originally of Tauranga and now studying in Christchurch, were selected by the University of Otago School of Medicine to join the Rural Medical Immersion Programme for fifth-year students in 2013.
Mr Neynens chose Balclutha and Miss Craw chose Greymouth.
''I really want to go into rural medicine after I graduate,'' he said in Queenstown yesterday.
''I spent a year in Balclutha and I really enjoyed that. The staff and patients were really nice, and I think there's definitely a difference in personality.
''I was in Christchurch last year, so it's kind of a big city mentality versus a small town.
''Our neighbour in Balclutha was always bringing us round food and making sure we're all right and I can't speak highly enough of the staff.''
Mr Neynens flies today from Christchurch to India for the first time, where he will work for four weeks at the Lady Willingdon Hospital, Manali.
He then travels to Gibraltar, where he will work for eight weeks at St Bernard's Hospital.
The size of the hospitals and the towns they serve helped him choose where to work, he said.
''Manali's about 20,000 people, which is quite sleepy by Indian standards, and it's got a good hospital, around 50 beds.''
Gibraltar was chosen as a place whose residents speak English, he said.
''It's a bit bigger hospital, with a couple of hundred beds supporting a population of 20,000 to 30,000.''
Mr Neynens is keen to expand his knowledge of emergency medicine. It could be critical in rural areas where a patient's outcome may rely on a single clinician's competency.
''In India, I'm hoping to do obstetrics, but keep general at the same time because that's what I'll be doing after I graduate.
''In Gibraltar, I'm doing emergency medicine for three weeks, one week in orthopaedic surgery, one week of gynaecology and two weeks of general surgery.''
Australian-born but Invercargill-raised by New Zealand parents, the 22-year-old former dux of Southland Boys' High School transferred from Christchurch to the Dunedin campus of the University of Otago School of Medicine for 2014 and will spend the year based in Invercargill Hospital.
