Suzanne Emslie would still like to meet the firefighters who saved her on the night of the Abbotsford landslip.
Miss Emslie (now 54) was a 14-year-old girl living in Christie St when the earth began to slide at 9.07pm on August 8, 1979.
A large chunk of the Abbotsford hillside - 18ha and 5millioncum of earth - had finally broken away after months of developing cracks, and was heading downhill at a slow but inexorable pace.
It was eventually to slide 50m in 30 minutes, opening up a void 16m deep in places, between once-connected homes and streets.
Entire sections of streets went with the slide, as did some of the 69 homes either destroyed in minutes or demolished later, at a cost of more than $10 million.
Miss Emslie told the Otago Daily Times she was at home with her family - her father, mother and 11-year-old sister - along with two family friends on the night of the landslip.
The group had been pulling up carpet and retrieving other items ahead of evacuating when the ground began to move.
"We really felt it, and you could hear it. You could hear the trees cracking."
They all rushed outside but found themselves marooned on the moving slab of land as a void opened up between them and firmer ground, as nearby neighbours had the same awful realisation.
Her father, Colin Emslie, led the group across a farmer's paddock in the darkness, as the ground moved beneath their feet, to what he hoped was the relative safety of a stand of trees on higher ground.
"Dad was saying the trees should hold the ground together."
From there, they could see torches and other flickering lights, hear the yells of neighbours and the splitting and cracking of homes on the move, as houses and then cars began to fall into the void.
One woman was "beside herself" while another man had to be talked out of going back to try to rescue his car, and instead watched as it plunged into the chasm along with his house.
"The power lines would break and there were cars and you could hear ... the wrenching of buildings pulling apart.
"I remember my sister really clinging to Mum, and Mum really clinging to her. I remember it feeling surreal. I didn't really think it was happening."
But then, after a lull in the landslip, they saw a flickering line of torches emerging from the darkness.
Six firefighters were gingerly crossing the broken ground between them, stringing safety rope as they went, coming to their rescue.
They reached the group soon after and swiftly swung into action.
"I just remember they were really quick and quite assertive about what we needed to do.
"My sister is tiny ... and the fireman just whipped her up into his arms. They went to do that to me and I said, `Oh no, I'm too big and heavy'.
"I just remember holding his hand and walking down with him. I was completely in awe. I just thought they were heroes."
The group made it to safety and were taken to a community hall in Green Island.
Their house, despite a "huge crack", but was eventually sold, relocated to Invercargill.
The Emslies settled in Kaikorai Valley and put the night behind them.
Forty years on, Miss Emslie was still full of admiration for the efforts of her father, who died in 2011, and of the firefighters who saved them.
A reunion with the firefighters would be "amazing", she said, "I just remember them being so calm."
Abbotsford landslip:
• Occurred at 9:07pm on August 8, 1979.
• Preceded by months of land movement and property damage.
• In the landslip, an 18ha, 5 million cu m slab moved 50m downhill.
• 69 homes destroyed or demolished later.
• No lives lost and serious injury avoided.
• Unstable geology later identified as the primary cause; human factors contributing.
