Broadcaster Paul Holmes has been discharged from Hawke's Bay Hospital and says his stay "was the peace I needed".
"Everything is calm, my health is secure and I am relaxing at home," he said.
Mr Holmes was admitted to Hawke's Bay Hospital after complications from last week's open-heart surgery inAuckland left him gasping for breath.
"Everything has settled down, it was a scary upset - a hell of a thing."
"I spent an excellent few days in Hawke's Bay Hospital and we are simply taking things easy - watching a lot of telly, reading, eating some nice soups and going for walks."
He said hallucinations and nightmares had subsided. One dream involved Queen Elizabeth ordering him to fix tail-guns on broken-down World War II bomber planes for her Jubilee.
"I only had one hallucination last night, that a big doctor was standing next to me. But my wife assured me he was not and I said, thank you very much for telling me and I went back to sleep."
He said he was looking forward to "a quiet few weeks of rebuilding" before returning to work.
