This was one of three airs performed by Mr Kernaghan (19), a law and arts student who has won a $3000 Alexander Leith Memorial Scholarship.
The scholarship was established by the descendants of Alexander and Margery Leith in 2008.
It aims to help students who have demonstrated outstanding merit in solo performance, in either Scottish piping or drumming, and all-round academic ability, to attend Otago University.
The Leiths were Scottish migrants who arrived in Dunedin in 1849 and developed two farms on the Taieri Plain before moving to Southland in 1861.
"I'm very humble.
"It's a fantastic opportunity for me to further my piping," Mr Kernaghan said of his scholarship success.
He is a first-year student studying for an LLB and a BA in politics and music and is also the first student to gain the scholarship.
He was benefiting from its support and from having Greg Wilson, an international prize-winning piper, as his university piping performance tutor, he said.
Winners of the first-year student scholarship are also expected to give a musical performance at the university.
Mr Kernaghan said he was also "pretty stoked" that he had gained second place in the Gold Medal Piobaireachd competition, during the New Zealand Championship Solo Piping in Hastings last weekend.
• Another Otago University student, Tom Hill, a Scottish drummer, has also been awarded a $3500 David A. Grant Memorial Scholarship in Scottish Piping and Scottish Drumming.