About the only people not surprised by the New Zealand rowing team's exceptional form in Europe are the rowers themselves.
The black singlet brigade were a dominant force at a World Cup regatta in Munich last month, where five of a record eight-medal haul were golds.
Then in a rare team appearance at the Henley regatta in England over the weekend, another four golds were reaped, fuelling an air of confidence heading into the final leg of the three-pronged World Cup circuit in Lucerne starting with heats on Friday night (NZ time).
A rash of retirements and sabbaticals in the wake of last August's Olympic sparked fears New Zealand's sustained international success of the past four years may diminish.
However, Rowing NZ (RNZ) high performance manager Alan Cotter always contended that standards could be maintained and his confidence only grew as the national training programme unfolded on Lake Karapiro.
"After our testing, the speed they were showing told us they could perform in Europe," Cotter told media from Lucerne.
"In Munich, a few strong countries weren't there (the United States, Canada and Australia) but we'll take those wins.
"Nearly all of the big countries will be here this week so we'll get a good indicator of where we are ahead of the world champs."
Small focus
As usual, New Zealand's focus is in the small boats, where their strongest world championship contenders at Poznan, Poland in late August are single sculler Mahe Drysdale and the men's pair of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray.
Triple world champion Drysdale's form is red-hot, having smashed nearest rival Alan Campbell of Britain at both Munich and Henley.
Campbell shook his head after being outclassed in the Henley final in front of an estimated 80,000 supporters along the River Thames.
"It was like I had Mahe on my back and was pulling him along," Campbell told reporters.
"We've got to find a way to beat him. He's in incredible form."
Bond and Murray have been turning heads with their finishing stamina, powering away over the extended 2112m course at Henley to follow a dominant Munich gold.
Minor medals
Also victorious at Henley were women's single sculler Emma Twigg and the men's double scull of Nathan Cohen and Matthew Trott - both crews who snared minor medals at Munich.
The other Munich gold medallists were women's pair Rebecca Scown and Emma-Jane Feathery and two lightweight crews - single sculler Duncan Grant and the double of Storm Uru and Peter Taylor.
Cotter said gold to the women's pair and bronze to the quadruple scull of Genevieve Armstrong, Louise Trappit, Sarah Barnes and Harriet Austin proved their was depth in women's rowing after the retirement of double Olympic champion twins Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell.
It also vindicated RNZ's goal of fielding a women's quad at the 2012 London Olympics and Cotter hoped to see more gains this week on the Rotsee regatta course, where the finals will be contested on Sunday night (NZ time).
Before their 12-hour journey from London to Lucerne, some of the New Zealanders took a chance to visit the Olympic venue, at Dorney Lake in Eton, site of the 2006 world championships.
Meanwhile, Cotter had high hopes for the country's premier junior rowers who flew to Europe on Friday to complete preparation for the world under-23 championships at Racice, Czech Republic from July 23-26.
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