The 14-year-old took up the sport just three months ago, urged on by her father, Jon Andrews (46), who has come out of retirement to support his daughter.
Before Andrews gave up competing at just 27, he enjoyed a successful career, including seventh place at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and two bronze medals at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland. He is also a former assistant coach for the New Zealand team.
In the intervening years, he had been ''just having fun riding mountain bikes'', but got back in the cycling saddle to train Ellesse.
''In the last three months I've sort of revisited a lot of the coaching thing and got up to speed with the current technology because there's been huge leaps and bounds in the time that I've been away from the sport.''
Officials spotted Ellesse's potential at her first event - the South Island secondary schools championships in December - and asked her to return for the Southland championships the following week. There, she won two silver medals and was selected for the Southland team, along with her father, to compete at the national age group track championships in Invercargill last week.
Ellesse won gold and set a record in the under-17 girls team sprint (with Emma Cumming), won silver in the under-17 girls 500m time trial and team pursuit, and won bronze in the under-17 girls 2000m individual pursuit and sprints.
Andrews won two gold medals and set two records, in the masters 2 team sprint and the masters 500m time trial, and won a silver medal in the masters 2 keirin.
He and wife Angela Mote-Andrews ''did have to give a gentle nudge'' to get their daughter to pursue the sport, offering to increase the frequency of her much-loved dance lessons in exchange for more time spent on the bike.
''She agreed to that ... and it paid off. She's had a lot of fun and it proved that our suspicions were correct that, yes, she has got some talent on a bike.''
Andrews said Ellesse's natural ability also came from her mother - a former competitive mountain biker and multi-sporter.
''Ellesse seems to have a really amazing blend of her mother's endurance and my speed so ... she's definitely inherited the cycling genes from both of us.''
The couple's younger daughter, Zoe (11), was also showing skill on her bike.
Andrews believed his background - coupled with input from local endurance coaches such as Val Burke and Dougal Allan - would be ''hugely advantageous'' for developing Ellesse's talent.
''Maybe my cycling career has just been a preparation for what's to come,'' he said.
''We can make sure she's doing the right things from day one, where most kids have to go through quite a learning curve.''
The next step would be introducing Ellesse to road cycling, which would ''lift her performance another couple of rungs''.
With a revived interest in competing, Andrews hoped to be part of a team for the masters world championships in Australia in a couple of years.
''I've had some amazing results really for three months training and I could do a lot more with a bit more time.''
Ellesse said she had not given much thought to whether she had aspirations to follow her father's footsteps all the way to the Olympics.
''But I'm keen to do some more, it's quite fun ... It's quite social and everyone's really friendly.''
Training under her father was ''good most of the time'', she said.
''Except for, I guess, with your dad as your coach you're not really as disciplined because you know him well.''
Andrews said Ellesse worked hard in training, but it was important she pursued her other interests, too.
''I know that as her coach and as her dad I can't hammer her and it would probably be counterproductive to do so. I'll try and chill out a bit.
''If she wants to be a crack cyclist in the future then that door will be open to her ...
''Ellesse has definitely got the talent there if she wants it.''
