A 3-year-old boy surprised local residents after he got himself dressed early yesterday and left his caregiver's house, ready to walk 7km to his dad's.
The Rotorua boy only made it 300m before he was found by Dave Apete, who saw the boy in his driveway.
"I've never seen him before," Mr Apete said.
"He was walking around the corner of my house as I pulled in to the driveway. He said he lived nearby, 'just over there' he said. Just over there became a couple of kilometres."
He said he called police after he started walking the boy home and realising it was a long way.