One of her major goals for the future is to podium at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
"Absolutely. That's where I see myself. So I guess winning at this year's world champs made it realistic."
Edward and rowing partner Sophie MacKenzie (Blenheim) not only won gold in Amsterdam last month, but they also smashed the world record in the women's lightweight double scull event.
It marked a huge improvement for Edward who finished fifth at the world champs last year, with former rowing partner Lucy Strack (Otago).
Remarkably, Edward and under-23 star MacKenzie had only been training together for five weeks prior to the world champs this year.
"When we first got in the boat together we had quite a good rhythm, we had quite a natural swing together and we were pulling out some pretty good times.
"Going into the world champs we were feeling pretty confident and had the advantage of being the unknown."
Edward, 23, said they won their heat before finishing second in the semifinal.
"I have not been that nervous before a race in so long," she said about the semifinal.
"We were happy with second, our coach, Gary Hay, said to us to treat it as a process."
She said they went into the A final quite relaxed, taking the lead early before slowly pulling away.
"Part of our race plan was to really dominate the middle kilometre, and that's where we got our lead."
Edward said they had decided to begin their sprint home about 500m out from the finish line, which was marked by a bridge over the course.
"That was like our landmark, that was where we were really going to go for it and start building pressure."
She said when they got past the bridge she knew no one would catch them.
Edward said it was not until after the race they found out they had broken the world record (which Edward and Louise Ayling set in 2012).
"We had no idea. We did not know until we were getting interviewed after the race. I think a volunteer told us," she said. "We just looked at each other and grabbed each other and were like 'oh my gosh', we were so excited."
Edward said winning a gold medal at the world champs was the greatest feeling in her career.
"Going to the Olympics was amazing, like the environment was amazing, but it was such a different feeling to be at a regatta and to be the best in the world, and having the national anthem play and be at the top of the podium. It was very memorable."
The gold medal performance capped off an interesting, and at times difficult, season for Edward.
She started the international season with Strack in the double scull boat. However, Rowing New Zealand decided to split up the combination and sent Edward to two world cups to race the single scull events.
"To this day I do not really know what happened to Lucy and that combination. It was a number of things that happened," she said.
"[Rowing New Zealand] made the decision to put us in the single scull boats so we had some time apart to see if that would help things.
"There was still the chance that Lucy would jump back over, at the world champs, if she showed the progress.
"They said to me that I would definitely be racing in the lightweight double scull boat at the world champs, it was just a matter of who I would be racing with."
Edward said it was a testing time switching her focus to the single scull boat.
"There was definitely some hard times and I was a bit lost. The single [boat] is not an Olympic event and you always want to be in that Olympic boat," she said.
"There were moments where I felt a bit lost ... so it was a relief to win the singles."
She won two gold medals in France and Switzerland, in the single scull events. She then joined up with MacKenzie for the world champs and the rest is history.
Since returning to Rotorua, Edward has spent time catching up on her business studies, which she does part-time through Massey University.
Next week she will return to Cambridge where she will be based over the summer, with Rowing New Zealand's summer squad.
She said her focus was to secure her place in the New Zealand boat again next season.
