When two passers-by saw little Tairino Masters floating face-down in a lagoon at Spirits Bay he may have been only seconds away from drowning.
The two-year-old was not breathing when his rescuers dragged him from the water on January 2.
On Tuesday the plucky, water-mad toddler was back swimming - this timein the Paparore School pool surrounded by several ultra-attentive family members.
Family had gone along to help boost Tairino's confidence - though he showed no qualms about getting in.
On the day of the incident, by the time Tairino's mother Jaclyn Masters raced to the spot where people were working on him, he was only just breathing.
"He was awake when I got to him," she said.
But the little boy had been unconscious and the drama was far from over. What followed after the New Year family outing involved rides in three different vehicles and a helicopter to get Tairino to Whangarei Hospital from the remote Far North beach.
Spirits Bay camp manager Julia Brown drove mother and child to Waitiki Landing where a DOC crew picked them up. They then met an ambulance just north of Te Kao and were ferried from there to meet the rescue helicopter.
Tairino was admitted overnight - although he had complained of being hungry on the way south, which was taken as a very encouraging sign. He developed a fever that night, not an uncommon response to a near drowning according to medical staff, but was discharged the next day and has made a full recovery.
"They said he must have blacked out, and that could have saved his life," Ms Masters said.
She has nothing but praise and thanks for the people who reached her son first and got him breathing again.
Her precious 2-year-old child would not be going near water without her for a very long time to come, she said.
She knows all too well she may have been mourning the loss of her son this week rather than enjoying time with him in a pool.
