He had a giant golden Easter egg.
"This is for bringing home the golden egg," he said handing over the large chocolate treat.
Fast forward three years and it was Madelene Barkman's turn to shower her granddaughter with gifts. She had a huge bunch of "golden flowers for the golden girl".
Dunedin's golden girl arrived at Dunedin International Airport last night to a low-key welcome. About 15 family and friends were there to welcome the world champion home.
Shanks outclassed Wendy Houvenaghel, of Great Britain, in the final of the 3000m women's individual pursuit at the world cycling championships in Melbourne on Sunday night, winning by more than two seconds to claim the title for the second time.
She won the title in Poland in 2009 but this was "even better".
"My family was there and there was about 400 Kiwis in the crowd, so it was really special," she said.
In qualifying, Shanks rode a blistering personal best of 3min 27.268sec to set herself up for the gold medal ride.
It was a great effort considering Shanks has been focusing on the team pursuit.
The individual pursuit has been dropped from the Olympic programme, a decision Shanks says still hurts.
But she will still have an opportunity to ride for gold at the London Olympics later this year in the team pursuit.
The trio of Shanks, Jaime Nielsen and Lauren Ellis were pipped by Canada for the bronze and are 4sec adrift of the top teams, Australia and Great Britain.
