Brendan Smyth was asleep in his room on the sixth floor of the Museum Art Hotel on Wellington's waterfront when the 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck just after midnight on Sunday night.
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He knew what to do - drop, crawl and hang on, and that's exactly what he did as the hotel rattled around him, the mini bar emptying its contents to the floor, crockery and glasses falling from surfaces, the television falling to the floor and a crack appearing from one side of a window to the other.
Mr Smyth, Canberra's Commissioner for International Engagement, was leading what was to be a 92-strong delegation of Canberra business people, academics and others to the first Canberra Week in Wellington.
The event was cancelled, but ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr took off for Wellington at 11am on Monday as planned and will stay until Wednesday.
Mr Smyth said knowing Wellington was earthquake prone, he spoke with delegates last week about the risks.
"We looked it up," he said. "You drop to the ground, you crawl under a table and you hang on to it for dear life and I did exactly that."
Despite the damage and reports from locals that it was the worst they had felt in some years of severe earthquakes, Mr Smyth said he had felt shaken, but also found it fascinating.
"It well and truly shook. You literally go, my god that's amazing. It's afterwards you think, oh my god, that really was an earthquake ...
"All of the delegates had the same sort of experience, cracked walls, plaster dust, everybody's TV off the wall."
A tsunami warning followed the earthquake but the hotel guests were told the safest place for them was their rooms, and Mr Smyth said he got a couple of hours sleep later in the night.
About 30 Canberrans were on the ground with Mr Smyth over the weekend, with another 60 due to join them on Monday, including Mr Barr.
But the Canberra Week events, including a free dispensing of Canberra's anything-goes "freakshakes", were cancelled on Monday, with plans to reschedule.
Most of those already there were scheduled to fly back on Monday night. Mr Smyth stays with Mr Barr until Wednesday. The men are expected to take part in a commemorative wreath-laying, and a lunch meeting with the mayor, and Mr Smyth said they would "raise a toast to the people of Wellington using Canberra beer in a local pub", then leave the rest of the Canberra Week beers for Wellington to enjoy later.
"They want to look after their families, not have to look after us," Mr Smyth said. "We don't want to be an impost to them or a burden so we thought it best to come home."
Mr Smyth will remain in the Museum Art Hotel, famously moved across the road on rails to make way for the new Te Papa national museum, where Mr Barr will join him, until they leave.
