The summer sun - in contrast to the Scottish winter - is an obvious advantage.
"It's better quality training I can do here because I can just go out for hours and hours, at home I just get freezing cold."
After the weekend's Giant 2W Gravity Enduro Series Winton headed south.
"The trails are different all over New Zealand. Here [in Rotorua] the dirt's quite different, quite compact, but also quite slippy when wet, with lots of roots.
"It's just about carrying speed and quick pedalling. They are physical trails, a lot of them, which adds another element into how to race them."
It just adds to the variety of the series.
"We are lucky in enduro that everywhere we go in the world, we get a different test of different types of skills and different elements of mountain biking. Here is just another element of that.
"I love it here - the trails are brilliant and there's a lot of variety within the forest to test professional riders and beginners."
Winton has mixed memories of her first EWS event in New Zealand, the event run over a series of timed stages.
"I had some good first timed stages, then not so good after that. I was fifth in one of the stages and I think I was 10th or ninth. This time I'd like to be in single digits."
Winton secured Trek Factory sponsorship at the start of last year. She was the Scottish Enduro Champion and had finished 10th in the previous year's EWS.
"It's huge, it's my life and I love it. It's one hell of an opportunity and I want to make the most of it. I get the opportunity to come to places like New Zealand which is miles away from my home."
Mechanical issues hampered her efforts on Saturday.
"The chain was coming off and then it broke the chain guide and twisted the chain and it kept coming off - it was quite a frustrating day, but I learned a lot in terms of how to deal with mechanical things."
Winton began her mountain biking career with cross country, switching to enduro in 2013.
