He ''most terrifying three minutes'' of Wanaka woman Sophie Ward's life came while she was sitting in a Kathmandu cafe last weekend and a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal.
Having emerged unharmed from the disaster, she and husband Mal Haskins are now rallying support for others around them left struggling for survival.
The couple have been in Nepal since October, living in Pokhara, northwest of Kathmandu.
''We came over ... to live for eight months. It was a time in our lives when we both really wanted to,'' Ms Ward said in an email yesterday.
It is the 10th trip to Nepal for Mr Haskins, who is working as a tandem paragliding pilot, and the seventh for Ms Ward, who is volunteering for a local charity.
''We love Nepal so much. We both love the mountains and the people and the adventure that comes just with being here.''
The couple were in a cafe with friends when the shaking began.
''We ran for the door and got outside when it really started to roll. We held our friends close and stood next to the wall of the stupa [Buddhist monument] looking up at the buildings, waiting for them to start coming down.
''It was the most terrifying three minutes of my life. We were all just so scared. The noise of the buildings moving was strong, but mostly it was the wave of the ground moving and the feeling of helplessness that was overwhelming.''
The couple were now being looked after by Nepalese friends and their extended families, camping in a small patch of open ground in Boudhanath.
Ms Ward said while most of the media attention after the quake had been focused on Kathmandu and Mt Everest, the real devastation was in mountainous villages that had been cut off and, in some cases, levelled.
She and Mr Haskins were working with their Sherpa friends to raise funds for nine villages in the badly affected Helambu region, a less-travelled trekking area north of Kathmandu.
Up to 5000 people were homeless in the region and apart from one helicopter evacuation of 15 casualties, they had received no support from the Government or aid agencies.
Already they have raised more than $15,000 to buy tarpaulins, food, medical supplies and clothing.
Mr Haskins will head into the region today with a British medic, New Zealand mountaineer Jonathon Clearwater and his partner, Tracey Dearlove, and five Nepalis to establish an aid station for distributing supplies to the villages and providing medical assistance.
Ms Ward will stay in Kathmandu to organise more supplies to be sent into the area.
The couple have set up a Givealittle donation page: givealittle.co.nz/cause/nepal-earthquake-2015#, and a Facebook site: ''Nepal Earthquake - Helambu, Solu Khumbu Relief Fund'', on which they are providing daily updates on the aid project.
