Fay Grass was asleep at her Fern Rd property when the Maia slip rumbled down the property bordering her own.
It was not very long afterwards when the local fire brigade came hammering on her door.
"You don’t realise the extent of all they do until you experience their help for yourself — boy, was that an experience for me."
Ms Grass did get a heads up the fire brigade would be coming, but thinking the phone call in the middle of the night on Friday was her alarm, she attempted to lie back down and doze off again.
"I thought it was 6am but no, it was much earlier than that."
Next thing she knew, "three, big, burly firemen" were at her front door, telling her to grab a bag, get dressed and evacuate.
"I’m old now, and my mind went into a tizz.
"I told them to come in and said ‘look, I have carers and need help getting dressed’.
"‘Oh, no that’s OK, we can help you’ they told me", Ms Grass said.
Ms Grass said she sat down and had one of the "burly firemen" put her socks on her feet.
She explained to him what leg warmers were, but decided to "give changing the pyjama pants a miss for the day".
They offered to drive Ms Grass to Forsyth Barr stadium, but she said she could drive herself, and she made it to the centre in the very early hours of the morning.
The treatment she received was worth five stars, she said.
"I was amazed at how everything just fell into place, there was no waiting or anything, it was wonderful."
Ms Grass was given the "OK" to return home later on Friday night after spending her entire day at the stadium.
She thanked the fire brigade, red cross, "the people in the bunker, whatever that means" and all the people that have helped out during the state of emergency that left so many displaced with nowhere to go back to.
"Be grateful for the services that we have, they do a great job and it’s just amazing what they do", she said.
