KEY POINTS:
New Zealander Jane Franzi-Ford sifted through the debris of her home in Kinglake, Victoria, today, finding some joy amid the heartache of losing most of her possessions in the weekend's devastating bushfires.
Mrs Franzi-Ford, formerly of Auckland, and her husband Stephen fled from their house on Saturday night
as the flames ravaged their community at the height of the blaze.
Today they returned to ashen rubble.
Mrs Franzi-Ford laughed as she retrieved some possessions, such as a treasured piece of hand-carved greenstone, and cried at the extent of the devastation.
There was delight again when the family cat Inca, who was thought to have perished, briefly showed up before fleeing again.
"It's pretty surreal at the moment," Mrs Franzi-Ford told TV3 as she arrived at the scene today.
"You cry when you need to and you get angry when you need to. We knew this was gone, it was just a matter of seeing it."
While she got back her greenstone, she lost a cellar of 200 bottles of wine - "good Kiwi wine most of it," she said.
Her husband lost a collection of Winston Churchill books, while her son, New Zealander Kane Conway, said his A$100,000 worth of Star Wars memorabilia was also gone.
Mrs Franzi-Ford said the fire on Saturday night arrived just 10 minutes after they first saw smoke.
"I've worked with Auckland Civil Defence and did earthquakes and tornadoes, but I've never been so scared."
Like hundreds of others, she and her husband tried to escape in their car, but they became trapped.
"We got about halfway," she said. "We turned around and came back. We drove through the flames to get to the football oval. They were in front of us and behind us."
At the oval, they huddled under a blanket, wondering what was going to happen next.
"I was waiting for the flames to come over and I was really, really scared," Mrs Franzi-Ford says. "And I rang the kids, not to say goodbye really, but to say we love them."
"It sounded like a war zone. Everyone has bottled gas and there were gas bottles exploding around us, just the 'thump-thump', the flames and the bang. It was just horrific."
They managed to survive, but many others in the town, including their neighbours' children perished.
Fellow Kinglake resident Tina Wilson, 36, from Whakatane became the first New Zealand victim of the Victoria bushfires, dying in her home along with her three children Crystal (15), Nathan (13) and Tegan (6).
Her partner Sam Gents survived.
"She tried to get down the mountain and she rang me and said 'I can't get down,'" Mr Gents said.
"The fire brigade said go back to the house, and stay there and that's what she did.
"She rang me up and said 'I'm going next door, there are sprinklers there, we'll be fine. I'll call you soon.' That's the last I heard of her."
- NZPA
New Zealand's Red Cross and Salvation Army are accepting donations for those affected by the fires in Victoria.
Red Cross: Donations can be made by visiting redcross.org.nz, calling 0900 33 200 to make an automatic $20 donation, sending a cheque to Australian Bushfire Appeal, Red Cross House, PO Box 12140, Thorndon, Wellington, 6144, or by visiting any Red Cross service centre.
Salvation Army: Donate online at salvationarmy.org.nz or post to The Salvation Army, PO Box 27001, Marion Square, Wellington, 6164.
