There were hundreds of kiwis in New York on September 11. Many worked right in the heart of the financial district; at least one made the mad dash down the stairs at Tower One of the World Trade Center.
A year has passed since the attacks and TVNZ's Sunday programme has caught up with three of them to see how they are coping.
Melissa Jenner had memories of running, running hard, away from the WTC.
She wondered what incredible twist of fate had caused her to be late for a meeting which would have placed her on the floors where the first plane hit.
Six days after the attacks, the 32-year-old former Aucklander was coming to terms with the fact that everyone at her company, Cantor Fitzgerald, had died.
"I'm not coping, my temper is like, zero.
"I wish it (NZ) was right next door because I would go there in five minutes if I could," she said then.
Jenner has since moved back to Auckland.
"Everybody kept telling me how lucky you were... And that really started to bug me after a while ... I didn't want to feel lucky I wanted to feel really sad," she says.
If she was to return to New York today she would find ground zero unrecognisable.
It is now a curious mixture of consolation and consumerism. People hawk tourist souvenirs while visitors search for closure.
For a place that is so solemn, in its own way ground zero sometimes has the feel of a bazaar.
Another kiwi, Steven Domney, says he missed being at the WTC by only minutes.
"I'm feeling guilty about not being at work on time and I'm going well... I could have been on a train under the World Trade Center when it hit ," he said at the time.
Domney has made the decision to stay in New York.
He says life on the trading floor feels a lot the same one year on. It is often the walk down Wall St to the subway, then the ride home that puts him on edge he says.
"The disturbing thing to me is to see how easy it would be for someone to walk into a crowded place like a railway station and blow themselves up," Domney says.
Mikahila Nola was in one of the towers when a plane hit. She made it out alive from the 56th floor of Tower One.
She, like Jenner, has now returned home.
"I have moments where I'm really anxious... You feel this overwhelming terror... It's like a mechanism in side you that takes over...
"And it feels almost like it did that day," she says.
In the end, Melissa Jenner did feel ready to go back to work. She now has a new job, marketing director of the New Zealand Stock Exchange.
"There was a time when I wasn't ready to go back to work and I think being back in New Zealand and being home has allowed me get over that ," she says.
Jenner acknowledges the anniversary will be tough and says she will not be spending September 11th at work.
"I've invited my close family and friends out on a boat trip on the harbour with me for the day.
"Hopefully it will mean it's more about fun than focussing on what happened."
