He has displayed motor skills and doctors were giving daily condition updates, although because of the nature of brain injuries, medical staff won't put a timeframe on how long he was likely to remain unconscious.
It is costing $6000 a night to keep PJ in hospital and a Givealittle page has been set up to raise $150,000 to help with medical costs.
At 2.45pm today, 1129 people had pledged more than $117,000.
"I'm really overwhelmed to be honest," Joe Lupi said of the response.
"I cried last night looking at the people giving. It was just incredible, but it doesn't surprise me either because PJ would have been the first to give, himself," he said.
"He's got the best people in the world working on him now - a team of nine looking after him fulltime."
Joe also lives in Wellington and saw his brother regularly.
"He's a lovely guy. He's always given to everyone around him. He's a generous hearted person. He'd always do anything for his mates instantly, at the drop of a hat," he said.
"We're quite a tight family. He's got seven brothers and sisters who all grew up together."
PJ Lupi is a director of cleaning company CM Office Services. He plays mostly second team football for the Miramar Rangers - although he's also played for the senior side - and is a former head boy of Marlborough Boys' College.
Joe said his brother, while "over insured" back home, was not covered in Thailand.
"Everyone with loved ones travelling overseas, please check their insurance covers them while offshore. It's an easy mistake to make."
PJ's business partner Harvey Frame said PJ's brother Mark was called by a friend who had been in Thailand with him.
"He was told that there had been an accident and he got on the first flight, straight there."
Mr Frame said Mark found PJ Lupi in a Phuket hospital that "wasn't first world".
"There were about three nurses to 10 patients."
Mr Frame said PJ was the "most generous man I've meet in my entire life".
"He wouldn't bat an eyelid to help anyone out, he's a seriously good man and this is just sad, sad, sad," he said.
"He's the kind of guy who's got 1000 friends on Facebook but every single one of them will have a deeper connection."
PJ had been on holiday in Thailand for 10 days, with his girlfriend Amy who had returned to New Zealand the previous day, when the accident happened.
He was sharing a scooter with a friend, who was uninjured in the accident.
It was unclear how the accident happened but Mr Frame said PJ hit his head and had severe facial injuries, though he was wearing a helmet.
His kidney was also damaged, but was healing. Mr Frame was putting emphasis on making sure his friend's recovery went smoothly.
"Our main focus was to get him into the best care possible," he said.
"What we need to do now is just let the doctors do whet they need to do and we trust we're in excellent hands."
The Givealittle page says PJ Lupi's friends and family are "certainly optimistic and these early signs of movement are certainly good".
On it, friends and family have posted messages of support.
Michael O'Keefe said: "Paul is a guy who would give anything to help any one of us. Now he and his family need our help to get him back home and to health".
Mr O'Keefe, who set up the page about midday yesterday, told NZME. News Service he was overwhelmed with the response.
"I'm just doing it to support his family," he said.
"He's been there for all of use so we're trying to be there for him as well."
Mr O'Keefe, who also plays football for Miramar Rangers, flats with PJ Lupi in Wellington and has known him for about 15 years, since the pair lived in Marlborough as teenagers. He said PJ Lupi was always willing to help someone out with a job or a lift to football training.
He was a popular figure at football, recently winning the Miramar Rangers personality of the year award.
The club's president Peter Becker wished PJ Lupi the best for his recovery.
"The new's gone round the guys on social media. He's a really popular guy - a loveable rogue. Everybody hopes he gets well soon."
PJ Lupi made his senior football debut for the club in 2007 and has made 18 central league and 47 second team appearances as a striker or winger.
Kiwis have a history of accidents on scooters in Thailand.
Hawkes Bay man Sean Kenzi, 27, was in a Thai hospital for a month with broken ribs, punctured lungs, a split liver and broken jaw after a 2012 accident.
In 2011, the body of Christchurch man Nicholas McCutcheon, 20, was flown home from Thailand after he died in a scooter accident while on holiday with friends from the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
