Instead of returning to St Kevin's College for year 13 studies next year, the vivacious North Otago teenager is off on an adventure - kayaking in Uganda, the United States and Canada, with some study and a dose of different cultures along the way.
Courtney (17) was offered a $US5000 ($NZ6680) scholarship to the New River Academy, a travelling school with a focus on kayaking.
Next month, she will go to Uganda for seven weeks, one of the "best spots" in the world for whitewater kayaking.
She will also be learning about the culture.
She will then go to the United States for more training in Georgia, North Carolina and West Virginia, and on to Canada.
In June, Courtney will go to Germany for the world championships, meeting up with the New Zealand team.
"It's going to be real cool," she said.
Earlier this year, the freestyle kayaking enthusiast won third place in the junior division at the World Cup in Germany.
It was her first experience of competing internationally.
Courtney was introduced to the sport about two and a-half years ago by St Kevin's College physics teacher Aidan Haig, who has established a kayaking club at the school.
She got hooked - loving the adrenaline rush - and had not been able to stop, she said, laughing.
"I just loved it right from the start."
She travelled to Rotorua recently to compete in the Xmas at Kaituna event, where she won both freestyle events in the open women's section, which secured her the national freestyling kayaking series in the women's division.
At the world championships, she was aiming for another podium finish "and if I train hard, hopefully go for gold".
Next year was her last as a junior.
This year, she "cut back heaps" on other sports to concentrate on kayaking and also hockey.
In the past, she has also played rugby, squash, softball, canoe polo, indoor soccer - "just a bit of everything", but kayaking had finally pushed itself ahead.
"Normally, I'd just be from one sport to the other every night. Now, I think kayaking is the way I'm going to go."
The overseas trip was going to be "brilliant", and although she was the only New Zealander in the group, that did not bother her.
"It's exciting because you get to meet more new people. It's always better when you don't know anyone, I reckon, because you get to know everyone more, build up your contacts."
While Courtney was sad about leaving her friends in New Zealand, she planned to keep in touch through Skype and Facebook.
