More than two months after WhakaarI/White Island blew, survivor Kelsey Waghorn is celebrating the "little victories" in her recovery.
The tour guide, who suffered burns to 45 per cent of her body, shared a picture showing the remarkable transformation of her right hand in just a few short months.
On the left is her hand pictured on Christmas Day - tightly bandaged and pale, with blackened fingernails and cracked skin.
But only eight weeks later the bandages are gone. the cracks have healed and her skin is flushed with colour.
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Advertise with NZME."...although it doesn't look like it on the right there, these mits are looking significantly more 'skin coloured' every week," she captioned the post.
As her hand has healed, it's become less "crazy sensitive", meaning she can get back to the important things - like patting dogs.
"They still require moisturising every 0.2 seconds, massaging to stop scar tissue contraction and the oils are still working out where the exit is, but they're finally becoming less crazy-sensitive, which is allowing me to do more for myself - more importantly, pat dogs," she said.
The 25-year-old has continued to recover in the wake of the tragedy that killed 21 people.
"I'm covered in scars and relocated skin, and that's okay with me," she wrote in a recent update.
"I am slowly regaining the use of both of my hands - my right is worse than my left. But I'm working on that every day.
"Everything is healing twice as fast as anyone predicted, and although I have my moments, I am proud of the huge progress I have made."
READ MORE:
• White Island survivor Kelsey Waghorn shares video showing her learning to walk again
• Whakaari/White Island survivor Kelsey Waghorn woke to full thickness burns
• 72-year-old Whakaari/White Island survivor and father of 16th victim recovering in Australia
• White Island survivors Nick and Marion London 'staying strong and doing well' - son
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Advertise with NZME.Waghorn told The Rock she burst into tears when she saw that thousands of dollars had been donated towards her recovery.
"I cried my eyes out when I saw it," Waghorn said.
Donations to her Givealittle page have soared past $114,000.
Recently, she shared a video of her learning to walk again, aided by a walking frame.
"When they told me 'you'll have to learn to walk again' I almost scoffed," she captioned the post.
"'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.
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Advertise with NZME."Boy was I wrong."
Waghorn spent 10 days in ICU, five of those in an induced coma after the island erupted on December 9.
She's has undergone more than a dozen surgeries, with skin grafts to her arms, legs, hands and lower back, with some touch ups on her upper arms.
"Once again, thank you thank you thank you to everyone for their donations, their kind words, their time and hard work," she wrote on her Givealittle page.
"I wouldn't be here without you."