Mystic's Grace Nweke (L) with Pulse's captain Kelly Jury Photo: PHOTOSPORT
At this time of year the Silver Ferns are usually in the grips of the Northern Hemisphere winter playing Australia, South Africa, and hosts England - instead they are in the grips of the Australian summer.
And the players are relieved the temperature has dropped a little after the mercury rose in Sydney earlier in the week.
"It's a lot more bearable than the 40C heat we had on Tuesday, so we'll take it .. it got pretty sweaty," laughs Silver Ferns defender Kelly Jackson.
In lieu of the Nations Cup not going ahead this January, Netball New Zealand organised a nine-day training camp and a big component of it has seen the squad train alongside the New South Wales Swifts, who play in Australia's domestic SSN competition.
And starting yesterday, the squad is playing four training games against the Swifts in four days, in an effort to replicate the back-to-back nature of a pinnacle event.
With a New Zealand training camp squad of 15 in Sydney, Silver Ferns coach Dame Noeline Taurua has plenty of flexibility to rotate and introduce fringe players like Catherine Hall, Martina Salmon, Peta Toeava, and Saviour Tui to the environment.
"Any camp with Noeline is intense but it's been great so far, we've had sessions with the Swifts and their coaching group so we've done it all together and it's been great to work with them and then we have run through some structures on our own."
Jackson's former Silver Ferns team-mate Grace Nweke is now a Swifts player, having made the decision last year that it was worth forgoing her eligibility to play for New Zealand to compete in the world's best netball league.
Jackson shared the Dame Lois Muir supreme award with shooter Nweke in 2022.
In October, the pair were crucial in the Silver Ferns claiming the Constellation Cup over Australia for just the third time, but neither player knows when they might be teammates again.
"It's different seeing her on the other side but really cool opportunity for her and we can see from experiencing their group and their environment that she's going to do really well over here and she goes with our blessing. It was nice to catch up with her and she said she missed us a little bit but I think she will be a better athlete for it coming over here."
The Swifts are stacked with classy players including Australian Diamonds players Paige Hadley and Sarah Klau, as well as English international Helen Housby, one of the best goal attacks in the world.
From Jackson's first hand sneak peek of the pair, she expects Housby to be a brilliant foil to Nweke.
"I think they are going to be a great combo and Helen is very experienced and I think she will complement Grace very well."
Jackson said the camp was mutually beneficial.
"To be able to come over here and come up against really good competition within training. We've done skill work with them and we're helping each other out like working on man-on defence because it's their bread and butter and they were helping us with how we could use that and then we flipped it over to some space marking where we could give them some pointers.
"It's absolutely refreshing coming to a new environment and location and doing something out of the box and training with an SSN team it's never been done before by any international team. As players we are very thankful that both Netball New Zealand and the Swifts have been courageous in creating this opportunity for us."
The Silver Ferns already have a link with the Swifts through head coach Briony Akle, who had stints as a specialist coach for the Silver Ferns last year.
"We just love her and it's great to be able to work with an Australian coach, I think they just think a bit differently and bring different drills and it's quite refreshing to see how they think and have a new perspective."
