Billy Greer (18), a former pupil of Otago Boys' High School, had the beginning of his school year in Chile postponed when the 8.8-magnitude quake struck near Concepcion about 3.30am on February 27.
More than 500 people died as a result of the earthquake and about 200,000 homes were severely damaged or destroyed.
Billy was in Santiago, the capital of Chile, which is about 325km northeast of Concepcion.
The 90-second jolt was Billy's first experience of an earthquake.
He had arrived at a disco with some other exchange-student friends, walked up some concrete stairs to the entrance, and was asking about the cost when the music ''seemed to get really loud as the ground was shaking''.
Soon everyone realised it was not music, and the entire building was moving.
''Everyone inside ran outside to the balcony in fear, clutching to people we had never met, while watching these three big concrete buildings swaying from side to side.''
At the same time they were trying to avoid falling slates from the walls.
Because telephone lines were down and his cellphone needed recharging, it was several hours before Billy could contact his parents Gillian Thomas and Richard Greer, who were very relieved to hear from him.
Later, he was among a group of exchange students who were helping out with ''un techo para Chile'' (a roof for Chile), building houses for families.
He heard about the September 4 earthquake in Canterbury, New Zealand, about half an hour after it had hit, and promptly sent his parents an email to see whether they were all right.
''There wasn't much news about it here, although it was shown on the television a couple of times,'' he said.
There had been much more media coverage on the Pike River coal-miners, he said.
Earthquakes notwithstanding, Billy has had an action-packed year, including a visit to Easter Island where he went scuba diving, saw traditional dancing, and viewed volcanoes and the monolithic statues called moai.
Before returning home this month, he was planning a trip to Torres Del Paine, in the south of Chile.
In email correspondence, Billy described his time in Chile as ''the best year of my life so far'', and said he would strongly recommend the exchange-student experience to anyone who had the opportunity to do it.
When he is back in Dunedin, he plans to make the most of his holidays before starting his studies in international business and Spanish at the University of Otago.
He should have a head start in the latter.
''I am really happy with my Spanish. I came here with zero Spanish and I'm leaving fluent. It's not perfect, but I can communicate with anyone about anything,'' he said.
