But Emmabeth Jensen is starting to become the talk of Moana Pool.
The 15-year-old Waves club representative claimed six medals at the New Zealand short-course championships in Wellington recently.
Jensen hails from Auckland originally but her family moved to Adelaide about four years ago.
They met Waves coach Andy Adair at the Australian swimming championships and decided to send the promising swimmer to Dunedin to train under Adair for the rest of the year.
She arrived in June and is in year 11 at Columba College. She is staying with the family of fellow Waves swimmer Olivia Stevens, and later will be living with another clubmate, Sarah Cutler.
Stevens' mother, Tina, said Jensen was "pretty down to earth", and was fitting in and being well supported by Waves, Otago swimming and Columba.
Jensen was fourth in the 400m individual medley at the Australian age-group championships and has been in various state squads.
Earlier this year, she showed her toughness by winning four South Island schools titles, despite having tonsilitis and racing against older swimmers.
At the New Zealand short-course event, she won gold in the 400m medley and 50m freestyle, silver in the 200m medley and 200m freestyle, and bronze in the 800m freestyle and 200m backstroke.
She also placed fifth in the 100m backstroke and 400m freestyle, and sixth in the 100m freestyle.
Jensen smashed an Otago age group record with her 50m freestyle time of 26.31sec. The record was held jointly by Lara McCambridge (1998) and Lil Clearwater (2009) at 27.14sec.
Adair hopes his promising swimmer will get more opportunities to show her talent in New Zealand events.
"When Emmabeth returns to Adelaide she is likely to be picked up by the Australian development system," Adair said. "But because of the competition it will be harder for her to make Australian teams.
"I feel the New Zealand selectors should be made aware of her and have encouraged her Australian coach, Paul Staight, to bring Emmabeth back here for the New Zealand age group and open championships."
Another Waves swimmer, Jack Turner, won a silver medal in the men's aged 16 years grade with a 1500m time of 16min 16.43sec. It was a personal best time by 23.43sec.
He also won a bronze medal in the 400m individual medley.
Stefannie Gillespie (Zenith) won bronze in the women's 16 years 400m freestyle.
