Former Redcliffs Rest Home resident David Smith (80) and his buddy Lindsay Kelso (70) have been left shaken, and definitely somewhat stirred up after the Christchurch earthquake on Tuesday left their home absolutely uninhabitable.
The pair were the only two men among the 16 residents transferred from the Christchurch rest-home to Leith House Rest Home in Dunedin on Thursday night. While they were enjoying the attention they were getting, the ordeal was beginning to take its toll on them.
Mr Smith, a former ambulance officer, yesterday said the earthquake had been a harrowing experience.
"It was scary. It threw us about a bit.
"I was coming from my room, and all of a sudden there was a bang, a hiss and a roar ... and the next thing I knew, I was on the floor.
"I haven't been back to my room since. I've had to leave everything."
He had travelled around the world several times and had collected many precious "trinkets".
"I would have liked to have kept them, but they said we couldn't go back in there."
The pair spent several nights sleeping on a floor and, until they arrived in Dunedin, had been unable to shower or brush their teeth.
"It wasn't until we left Christchurch that it started to sink in how lucky we are to be alive.
"The manager of our rest-home [Don Cowey] was killed by a boulder which came off the hill," Mr Kelso, a former warrant officer in the New Zealand Army, said.
"You think you're bulletproof, but we're not. We've been trying to hold it together for the ladies, but it hasn't been easy.
"You just have to take it in your stride. There's nothing else you can do," he said with teary eyes.
One of the things which had made the upheaval a little less traumatic was the support of Dunedin residents, especially the clothing, food and gifts donated to the Leith House Rest Home for the evacuees.
Mr Kelso was also delighted to be back in a comfortable bed.
"We won't go back. There's nothing there really to go back to. Our home has been declared uninhabitable," Mr Kelso said.
