Otago has gained two key players.
Former Southland representative Lisa Henderson has moved to Dunedin, joined the Otago Club and is playing at No 2 this week.
Henderson has a wealth of experience having played at No 1, No 2 or No 3 for Southland 21 times since making her debut as a 17-year-old in 1987.
The other newcomer is Jo Hicks-Beach (Queenstown) who will make her debut at No 5.
Hicks-Beach is also very experienced having played County golf in England before coming to New Zealand.
The pair join the three Arrowtown youngsters who were all in the team which performed well last year.
All three have one more year's experience with Monica Tulisi at No 1, Shani Arona at No 3 and St Hilda's schoolgirl Laura Hoskin (14) at No 4.
Defending champion Auckland will be without Cecilia Cho for today's opening round.
The New Zealand and Australian amateur champion will be flying back from China where she added a further title to her growing international career.
Cho, who turned 16 last week, took overall honours in the annual Aaron Baddeley Junior International on Sunday.
She won a playoff on the second extra hole to take the overall title after she finished tied with the 15 years division winner Annie Choi (Korea) after 72 holes.
Cho comfortably won the 16 years division, with consistent rounds of 73, 75, 74 and 71 on the demanding Lion Lake course, rated the best new course in China.
She trailed Choi by three shots for the overall honours going into the final round but drew level with her best round of the tournament before prevailing in the playoff.
Fellow Aucklander Sam An (Titirangi) won the 16 years age group in the boy's competition in China, five shots clear of American Trey Kaahanui.
Cho flies to New Zealand today, heading straight for Wellington to lead her team for the third round tomorrow against Hawkes Bay-Poverty Bay at Miramar Golf Club.
Auckland has the bye in today's opening round.
It will need to call on reserve Emily Eng to replace Cho at No 1 for its afternoon clash against Southland.
Auckland is chasing its 20th provincial victory in Wellington this week, after beating arch-rival North Harbour last year in a classic final which went to a sudden-death playoff.
Waikato, North Harbour and host Wellington appear the most likely teams to thwart the defending champion.
New Zealand representative Emily Perry gives Waikato a strong hand at No 1 while the brilliant 13-year-old Lydia Ko, an outstanding performer at the recent Espirito Santo world teams' championship, leads North Harbour.
Wellington, fifth last year with an extremely young combination, has the host course advantage with five of last year's team back again.
The 14 districts are split into two divisions with round-robin play until Friday and semifinals and final on Saturday.
