IT'S the best Christ-mas gift ever! That was the verdict of overjoyed Elizabeth Saunders as she hugged daughter Louise, back home in Kidderminster after her Australian ordeal.

Louise, 19, made headlines around the world last month after getting lost while hiking up a mountain in north Queensland.

She was missing for nearly four days in dense rainforest, sparking a massive rescue operation involving helicopters, the Army, police and Aboriginal trackers, before stumbling out to get help.

Louise, speaking exclusively to the Shuttle/Times and News, said she was "glad to be back".

"There were moments when I thought I would not get to see Christmas but thankfully I made it."

Louise, who spent three nights in the pitch black during her ordeal, said thoughts of home and family helped keep her going during her darkest moments.

"I treated every step I took as a challenge, as an adventure. It was the only way to stop the panic taking over. But I knew in my heart I would see mum and everybody again," she said.

She had no idea her disappearance had sparked international attention or that it was causing her family so much distress. delighted Elizabeth Saunders hugs daughter Louise, who is back home for Christmas.

"I didn't think anyone at home would know. I thought I'd just go back to where I was staying and that would be that. I had no idea I had caused so much fuss."

She denied suggestions she acted irresponsibly, adding: "Friends had done the same walk alone and the only thing I did wrong was to get lost ."

She had an emotional family reunion when her mum, brother James, 20, and sister Hollie, 15, flew out to Australia after hearing she was safe.

She did not intend to return to England with them but after seeing her mum, she felt she had to be home for Christmas.

Since her return 10 days ago, she has been enjoying her new-found status as a Kidderminster celebrity.

"People come up to me whenever I go out. My friends keep cracking jokes - if I go to the loo, they ask me if I want a map."

She has no qualms about going abroad again and will complete her tour of Australia and New Zealand before returning in June to complete her beauty therapy course at Kidderminster College.

One Australian newspaper offered to fund a big wedding for Louise and Aussie boyfriend Steven Wong who she had been dating for a couple of months.

But she confided: "I think a lot of him and will be seeing him again when I go back. But we will just have to see how it goes."

Her New Year resolutions are "not to get lost again", but also to raise funds for the voluntary rescue organisation which searched for her on the mountain. "They were amazing," she said.

A relieved Mrs Saunders said: "There were times I thought I'd never see her again - and here she is, back home at Christmas. I haven't had the chance to send cards, buy presents or get the house ready or anything - but I just know it will be the best Christmas ever."

Mum and daughter went together to Mount Tyson, near the tropical town of Tully, to revisit the scene of Louise's ordeal.

"We just went to the entrance to the mountain and that was far enough for me to see how thick and jungle-like it was," said Mrs Saunders.

"The trail was marked but it wound through the rainforest. I think she did so brilliantly to make it out of there on her own."

Louise, who is working with her mum at a Worcester department store during her spell at home, will be spending Christmas celebrating her safe return with her mum, brother, sister and grandma Margaret Haywood.

Mrs Saunders added she had read critical letters sent in by a Shuttle/Times and News website reader in Cairns, near the search area, which suggested Louise had put rescuers at risk.

"Louise did what many, many people do without any problems. The trail was marked and was signposted as a two-hour return trip - she could never have known it would have turned into such an awful ordeal."

She added the sense of humour of her Australian rescuers was evident when Louise went to a barbecue organised in her name.

"When she walked in they started singing 'She'll be coming round the mountains'."

And her pals in Tully got her a specially printed t-shirt, based on the name of her boyfriend, which read simply "She went the Wong way".