Trapped in his room on the 14th floor of the city's luxury Oberoi hotel, the 52-year-old made a series of heart-wrenching phone calls to his wife and four children, saying goodbye as the sound of gunfire drew closer.
But Phil Sweeney didn't die.
Instead, he spent more than 40 terrifying hours cowering in his room before being rescued by Indian commandos.
Last night, Mr Sweeney described his ordeal from the safety of his Gold Coast home, surrounded by jubilant friends and family.
At times, he joked and laughed, at others his voice cracked and he could barely speak - particularly while describing ringing his 28-year-old daughter in London to say goodbye.
"My goodbye message to her was left on her mobile phone's answering machine. She received it when she was on a bus. That was horrendous - the worst part of it," he said.
Mr Sweeney, who left Dunedin in 1997, was part of a 17-strong New South Wales trade delegation to Mumbai, and had hoped to recruit Indian students for his pilot training school in Australia.
He only arrived that day, and retired to his room after a drink with colleagues, switching off his light about 9pm.
"Probably 15 or 20 minutes after that there was a volley of gunfire and a grenade exploded," he said.
Thinking it was fireworks, Mr Sweeney went back to sleep - only to be woken by a second volley of shots, echoing up from the hotel's lobby, minutes later.
Then a fire alarm went off, and he turned on the light to find smoke filling his room.
Convinced he was in the middle of a hotel fire - and nothing more - he wrapped a towel around his head and fled the room, searching for a stairwell down.
Thick, black smoke forced him back to his room, however.
Trapped in his room, which had no opening windows, he eventually smashed a large plate-glass window and hung his head outside to breathe fresh air, and made his first phone call - to his wife Carolyn (48).
"I said . . . there is no way out for me," he said.
"I thought I was a goner."
Instead, he learned terrorists had stormed hotels and other buildings, killing indiscriminately.
During a tense 40-hour wait, developments were relayed by his wife, other family and friends and Australian officials.
Gunfire and explosions rang out throughout the rest of the night and Thursday as Mr Sweeney hid under a duvet "scared for my life".
"There was constant gunfire and grenade explosions."The flurry of texts continued as his family relayed news, messages of encouragement and warnings to stay put and quiet.
"The terrorists were going room to room looking for people to shoot, and people going down the stairs were being shot."
Eventually, the noise intensified, as Indian commandos stormed the hotel about 2pm and began going room to room.
He received a call about 8pm, saying he would be freed soon.
But nothing happened and by Friday morning he was exhausted.
Eventually, the doorbell rang.
There were Indian commandos outside and he was escorted downstairs and handed over to Australian officials.
He learned later one of his colleagues, who had stayed behind in the hotel's restaurant, had been shot and killed.
Mr Sweeney thinks he sent and received 2000 text messages during his ordeal, in addition to phone calls and messages.
"We all talk about mobile phones being the bane of our lives, but it was my lifeline to my family.
"The first few breaths of fresh air once out on the street were "fantastic", he said.
Then he called his wife, "As soon as my feet touched the asphalt in the lobby I pressed the `go' button and said to her I was out."
