Mrs Woodward (61) has just returned home to Alexandra after revisiting the island on the first anniversary of the disaster.
She was holidaying with friend Jill Barron in Lalomanu village when the tsunami hit on September 29 last year.
The force of the huge wave pushed them through the wall of the beachfront fale where they were staying and into the sea, where the women swam for their lives.
After being tossed around in the sea, they managed to reach solid ground.
Mrs Woodward broke her pelvis in four places while Mrs Barron received a gash to a leg.
"Going back there was something I felt I had to do," she said yesterday.
"It was hard but I was really brave and didn't let anyone know that deep down, I was really scared.
"I didn't know how I'd feel, but I walked on to the beach, had a paddle and later had a swim because it was so scorching hot, and it didn't bother me. I still kept one eye on the horizon though [to check for huge waves]."
She feels that returning to the scene of the disaster, attending the memorial service for the 149 residents and tourists who perished in the tsunami and renewing friendships with people she met at the time helped her "lay it to rest".
"It probably was a closure of sorts, and everywhere we went, people were so pleased we'd come back."
Mrs Woodward, her son Nathan (30), her friend Jill and Jill's husband, Ian, who live in Auckland, arrived in Samoa the day before the memorial.
"Discovering our accommodation was right on the beach, very close to the water, was interesting, though ... although these beach houses were made of solid material, so quite different to the fales we were in last time."
The group was early for the memorial service, so they visited Lalomanu Hospital, where they were first treated after the tsunami.
"The medical team came out and invited us to breakfast. After that, we walked back down the hill, met up with everyone else and we all walked together back up the hill to the church.
"It was rather lovely."
More than 500 people attended the three-hour church service and Mrs Woodward said she had kept in touch with many of the people who helped her after the disaster - many attended the commemoration.
The island looked very different, with "diggers and dozers" everywhere, an "escape road" built up the hill in case of a similar disaster and debris from the disaster still evident.
"But I'd recommend the place to anyone to visit. The people are just the same, really friendly people. They'd give you the shirt off their backs."
She was given the book Pacific Tsunami - Galu Afi, written by Lani Wendt Young, which features the experiences of Mrs Woodward and Mrs Barron, among others.
Mrs Woodward's only regret about her trip is that she discovered many of the locals affected by the tsunami did not seem to have benefited from donated aid money, leaving her to wonder where the money had gone.
