A Rotorua woman is keeping in daily contact with her son, who lives near the bushfires around Sydney in Australia.
Ines Friese and her husband have returned from Penrith, which is near the Blue Mountains. Up to 170 tankers and 800 firefighters have been battling a blaze in the region for the last three weeks. She and her husband flew over to meet their newborn grandchild.
"We actually saw it start," Mrs Friese said. "We had travelled from the Blue Mountains that day and it looked like a normal bushfire but by the time we got back [to Penrith] it had spread so quickly. There's quite a lot of bush around the suburb and things are so dry that a fire travels so fast."
Mrs Friese said her son lived across a river from the blaze but thick smoke had forced the family to stay inside.
"When we were there they had 110km/h wind and it was very hot, about 38C. We kept hearing the helicopters with their monsoon buckets flying above.
"We arrived home last week but I've been on the phone to them every day checking how they are," she said.
"People are prepared to leave if they have to. You almost have the impression that they are used to this but they have their bag packed sitting by the door with their clothes and passports inside."
Yesterday it was reported 50 fires were still burning across New South Wales, but winds and temperatures had eased.