Rebecca Dew is set to have a birthday she will never forget.

The Greenhithe teenager turns 17 this week while on tour in Japan with the New Zealand women's basketball team the Tall Ferns.

Dew is the youngest player in the squad and is relishing the experience.

Standing at 1.9m - or 6ft 3in - she jokes that she still literally has players "to look up to" in the squad.

Born in the United States, she moved to New Zealand seven years ago with her parents who came here as missionaries.

Although the accent is still definitely there Dew is now a New Zealand citizen and says she is at least "half a Kiwi".

She has little time for other sports and although she has tried netball she says she definitely won't be converting to the sport any time soon.

"Basketball just seems more full on," she says.

The teenager has been training with the Home School Basketball programme.

Tall Ferns coach Mike McHugh is looking forward to seeing how the hard-working youngster performs.

"Due largely to the absences of Donna Wilkins and Aneka Kerr, who would normally be in the programme, we're looking at this as a development opportunity with a view to our China trip in June," he says.

"We need to see how some of the younger players fare at international level and the best way is to throw them in the deep end.

"Like Jess McCormack in 2005, Rebecca is a player of the future," says McHugh. "I want to see how she handles herself at that level."

North Harbour players Karlene Kingi, Charmian Purcell and Noni Wharemate are also on tour.

The squad contains just one survivor from Athens in 2004 - pint-sized point guard Angela Marino.