Whakaari/White Island tour guide and eruption survivor Kelsey Waghorn has shared a video of herself walking with the help of a walking frame on social media, something she thought was going to be a lot easier to do.
Ms Waghorn suffered serious burns to 45 per cent of her body in December's fatal volcanic eruption.
After initially being put into an induced coma and undergoing skin grafts every few days, she started sharing updates of her recovery online in January.
Today, Ms Waghorn has shared a video of herself walking on social media, with the aid of a walking frame. In her post she admitted she didn't think walking again was going to be as hard as it has been.
"When they told me 'you'll have to learn to walk again' I almost scoffed. I've been walking 20 something years, thank you, my body and I have got this. We might be weak and small at the moment, but once that strength comes back, no ‘learning’ will be required," Ms Waghorn wrote.
"Boy was I wrong."
The Whakatāne local said she had to teach her body to walk again.
"If you’ve had skin grafts to your extremities (or even if you’ve been in bed 20-something days), when your blood vessels all of a sudden have to increase that blood pressure as you go from horizontal to (semi)vertical, they don’t tend to keep up initially - cue the plum-purple hands and feet," she wrote.
"I literally had to teach my body to walk again."
In an update last week she shared an image of her legs wrapped in bandages and "tubigrips", which she said she has to wear because she can't help falling over.
Once she can walk without falling over, Ms Waghorn said the bandages will be replaced with compression garments which she will "get the pleasure of wearing for up to two years".
Over $112,000 has been raised for Ms Waghorn on her GiveaLittle page.
Twenty one people died after the December 9 eruption on the volcano - an island off the Bay of Plenty coast. Others, including Ms Waghorn, are still being treated for their injuries in hospital in New Zealand and overseas.
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