The 24-year-old science graduate has signed with the Frankston Blues and will play in the South Eastern Basketball League. It is her first professional gig and the 1.82m athlete is pretty excited by the opportunity.
"This will be my first time playing in an Australian league, so I'm not really sure what to expect," she said.
"So I guess I will just see how it goes when I get there. But a lot of the Tall Ferns girls who play in the league are really successful."
Former Tall Ferns coach Kennedy Hamilton-Kereama has links with the Frankston Blues and recommended McKenzie to the management team.
Tall Ferns squad member Natalie Moore will also be joining McKenzie at the Blues.
The league gets under way in early April and winds up in late August. That means she will probably be unavailable for Otago during the Women's Basketball Conference (WBC), although she hopes to fit in the odd game.
The Goldrush lost the final to the Harbour Breeze last season and McKenzie is dead keen to help her province exact some revenge.
"I may miss the finals but I'll try my best to get back," she said.
"We want to get some revenge on Harbour this year."
The tournament helped relaunch McKenzie's basketball career. As a 19-year-old she headed to the United States to take up a scholarship with Dodge City Community College in Kansas.
She later transferred to NCAA division 1 college Florida Gulf Coast University before graduating from Florida Southern College with a bachelor of science degree in criminology.
With four years of college basketball under her belt, McKenzie took a break from the sport but returned to New Zealand last season to play for Otago in the WBC.
She had a strong tournament and was named in the all-star five and then selected for the Tall Ferns tour of Japan.
She enjoyed her taste of international basketball and is hungry for more.
"It actually works out quite well. My season ends at the end of August and the Tall Ferns stuff is straight after that. So I'll come straight back and be ready to trial."
