As the sun beat down on Queenstown last week, it was hard to believe 10 years ago those standing in Earnslaw Park would have been waist-deep in water.
At 312.77m above sea level, it was the highest recorded flood in Queenstown's history.
Two metres of water fell in two days, submerging the town, eroding roads, causing landslips and uniting a community.
A ribbon tied around many parts of Earnslaw Park indicated the peak of the flood in 1999, which was remembered in a ceremony not as the Queenstown flood, but as a flood affecting the lakes district.
Compere Simon Green said Lake Wakatipu had been sitting at 310.5m before the 72-hour "deluge", which at its peak caused the lake level to rise 50mm an hour.
Using a technical mathematical calculation, Mr Green said the 2m rise was the equivalent of "232,000,800 Olympic-sized swimming pools".
The Queenstown Lakes district's deputy mayor in 1999 was Simon Hayes, who said damage to Glenorchy Rd and Wanaka "was just tremendous".
"It was a huge amount of water; it was really quite incredible."
Overall, however, Mr Hayes said it was a "community-building experience".
"Not an enjoyable way to do it, but the way the community pulled together was just fantastic.
"Almost every day when you turn the TV on, there are floods, mudslides, earthquakes . . . Ours, by comparison, was minor.
"We had no loss of life; we're still all here. We're still enjoying this magnificent place and long may we continue."
Mayor Clive Geddes recalled coming around the corner at Shotover St and seeing the water level on the Locations building.
He said the question ever since the 1999 floods was, "What have we learned?"The answer was that events of that nature "are not preventable".
"To a large extent, we have had to learn to live with flooding.
"Part of that is understanding what it's possible to do . . . and what we can't do."
Council chief executive Duncan Field said he recalled standing on a "water lid" on Breacon St "feeling it go up and down".
"Since then, we have all been working really hard to make sure should we have another event, the town is in a lot better heart, a lot better prepared than it was at the time.
"Most of the businesses around here are well prepared."
Mr Field said the community was also prepared.
"Everybody has to play their part: we did in 1999 and I'm pretty confident we will do again. Let's hope it's a very long time before I have to prove that."
At the end of the commemoration, Mr Geddes rededicated a water feature in Earnslaw Park which marks the 1999 flood levels.
