Jayden Broome, 19, was celebrating his birthday with a few drinks in the Dunedin student quarter when he slipped and fell from a two-storey Castle St flat named "Big Red" in September, bouncing off a wheelie bin before hitting the ground.
He was placed in a medically induced coma, suffering a head injury, broken ribs, collapsed lung and other fractures.
He woke from his coma in October and, three months after the fall, he was walking around Wakari Hospital on his way to making a recovery.
Talking out of a speaking valve, Mr Broome said the recovery was tedious at times and he was sick of his room, but it was going "pretty good".
"It’s hard not to be grateful," he said.
"Obviously for me to be up and walking it’s a miracle, but for me it’s hard because I want to be back to normal."
He had no recollection of his fall when he came out of his coma in October.
"I was like ‘What the hell is going on?’."
As he could not talk, he was unable to ask any questions about the incident.
Now, he had begun remembering things from before the fall, but his memory had to be jogged.
He said despite the awful circumstances, he needed to know what had happened that night.
"I needed to know what I was fighting," he said.
His recovery is going well and he is looking forward to where he will be three months from now.
His recovery began with the left side of his body beginning to move.
His feet started to move, then his legs and his arms.
The process had been slow and fast at the same time, he said.
"Three months when you come from scratch, it’s pretty fast, but it is slow when you’re stuck in your room looking at a wall.
"Especially when your friends are out doing stuff, it can be annoying, but it’s all good. I can’t do anything [about it]."
It was hard work slowing down and allowing his body to recover.
"You’ve got to rest because rest is what the brain needs, but it is hard."
He was doing a lot of rehab and was fed through a tube.
"I haven’t eaten in 92 days," he said.
He could not wait to eat his first meal.
"I’m not hungry, but I want food that bad."
His long-term goals were to be able eat and walk on his own and return to university.
He also had a list of short-term goals he ticked off to get better everyday.
Mr Broome, who has represented the Southland Stags, played under-19s representative rugby in Christchurch the day of the accident.
After upcoming brain surgery, he wanted to play rugby again and eventually become a professional player.
Mr Broome was studying secondary school teaching, but having had the experience in hospital, he was now thinking about studying nursing.
The injury had made it clear he had a lot of supporters.
"It’s meant a lot to see who really supports me, like who’s cried, who’s done all this, who’s come to see me.
"It all stacks up."
He was planning on getting back to every single person who had donated and commented on his Givealittle page, which raised close to $50,000.
His mother, Toni Dunn, said the first two weeks after the fall were "just horrible".
Initially, when the doctors tried to take him off the drugs he was on he did not respond and remained in the coma.
However, he eventually woke in October and when he squeezed her hand for the first time it was one of the best moments of her life.
She was grateful to everyone who had donated because it meant she could live in Dunedin and support her son while he recovered.
