KEY POINTS:
A holidaying Australian couple got the shock off their lives when police pulled over their campervan and told them they had their eight-year-old daughter.
They believed that the girl was asleep in the back of the campervan along with the couple's other children.
It transpired the distraught girl was accidentally left behind when the family drove off from a tourist stop near Homer Tunnel in Fiordland.
A passing driver noticed the crying girl, who told him her family had driven off without her.
The driver's employer Kiwi Discovery Vans manager Tim Barke told The Southland Times today the girl did well for an eight-year-old, because she knew the campervan registration number.
The van driver picked the girl up and phoned Te Anau police.
Te Anau police stopped the campervan at Te Anau Downs and advised the parents their daughter had been found.
Mr Barke said the family, including two other children, were oblivious to the missing girl until stopped by police.
"The parents thought all three children were asleep in the back."
- NZPA
