Mr. Hunter shared his experience of surviving a tsunami when he was on holiday in Bang Tao, Phuket. He was with his two children Kyle and Callum, and his wife. They were in Phuket celebrating Christmas. They were staying in a hotel near the beach on a hill. The tsunami hit them on boxing day, December 26th 2004 at 9:30am. The family of four were on the beach relaxing until out of the blue, the tide quickly pulled back extremely far out from the shore. Mr. Hunter, his wife and two children all ran out to the water to play. Suddenly, the water level rose very high, it had a strong current and was very deep. The married couple found themselves struggling to swim back to the shore with their children, they had to get some help from the staff from their hotel. As soon as they reached the shore and got out of the wave they ran to the top of the hill where their hotel was. From there, they watched the enormous wave wash over the shore and destroy everything in it’s path. Mr. Hunter described it as “watching a movie”.

From the way Mr. Hunter told his story, he made it clear that this experience has not had a long term affect on him and his family. He stated that “it does not impact his everyday life” like he thought it would. His children were very young at the time and he feared that they may be afraid of the ocean or swimming after experiencing the tsunami. Now, he sees the tsunami as just an interesting story to tell, nothing more.