This will be the third Olympics for Jones, who was New Zealand's first female Olympic paddler as an 18-year-old in Beijing.
She is not daunted by talk of Zika virus, Rio crime or the rush to finish subway routes.
"I've been watching CNN over here, as it's the only TV station in English, and there seems to be a lot of negative news around the Games," Jones said.
"But being here, everything seems to be working okay and is on track. I think it will be an amazing Games in a pretty amazing city."
Jones was 14th in London four years ago and 11th at last year's world championships.
Getting as much time on the Deodoro course has been crucial to chase a medal this time around.
"The course is great and we have developed a pretty seamless routine for training days over the last few camps which we slipped into again on arrival.
"I have just been working on familiarising myself with as many gate combinations as possible so that when they set the race course, there are no major surprises and I have covered most things.
"We still have over a week of training when we return so in total we will have spent ten weeks here - a decent amount of time."
Dawson, 15th in London, has had a frustrating start to his international season but is confident he's turned a corner.
"It's exciting to be paddling well but I've been making too many mistakes this season so far," he said.
"Since the World Cups, I've really been working on my consistency. I've really been enjoying being out on the water, loving training and enjoying the build-up."
After mixing it up with the world's best kayakers in Rio, Jones and Dawson look forward to hosting them in New Zealand for the first time.
The pair are ambassadors for the WhitewaterXL New Zealand Invitational in November, with $100,000 in prizemoney at stake, to be held at the recently-opened Vector Wero Whitewater Park in South Auckland.
