The 19-year-old defender has rejoined the Southern Steel, after missing the start of the pre-season through being in Fiji with the New Zealand under-21 team. She played alongside Steel shooters Jamie Hume and Jennifer O'Connell in the International Youth Netball Series.
After beginning its pre-season in Invercargill, the Steel is training in Dunedin this week. While the city has not turned on a summer as tropical as Fiji's, Erwood is enjoying being back.
''It's going really good actually. It's great to be back into it and hitting the ground running,'' she said.
''We've got some hard pre-season and just gearing ourselves up for the season.''
The squad is missing its Silver Ferns, as they have left for their tour of South Africa and Great Britain. However, that is not slowing the rest of the squad down. A team training is scheduled for today and a conditioning and skills session for tomorrow.
Being in the national under-21 set-up has helped Erwood stay in condition over the summer.
''We had two camps for under-21s. One in November so you were training for that, then you had that camp. Then if you got selected there was one in December and then the tour in January.
''So you just keep hitting those targets and keep pushing. You keep going over the break otherwise you just kind of just have a wee lull patch.''
Her reward for that effort was a trip to Fiji. There her team played the under-21 sides from Australia, Samoa and Fiji. It finished second, going down 52-43 to Australia in the final. However, it proved to be a valuable hit-out before the World Youth Netball Championships in Botswana in July.
''I was quite happy with the team's performance. We've still got a lot to improve on before Botswana. But it was still nice to hit the Aussies and see what they've got and know where we've got to head to next.''
Making the team to go to Botswana was a goal, but Erwood's main focus now was on the Southern Steel's upcoming campaign, her second with the team.
It has a trip to Australia to play Noeline Taurua's Sunshine Coast Lightning on February 10 and 12, before a pre-season tournament in Otaki from March 10-12.
It begins its season on March 26 with a game against new franchise the Northern Stars in Auckland, although there is still plenty to do before then.
''[The first game is] sort of off in the distance. [We are] just focusing on getting our fitness up and getting our structures under our belts and we'll see what happens from then.''
