Ricky Clark describes how he found a freight train north of Kaikoura after the earthquake in November.

A man charged with looting a train trapped near Kaikoura says some of the carriages had already been ransacked when he got there, but it wasn't a "free-for-all".

The train had become stranded after November's 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Kaikoura.

Ricky Clark said people were taking supplies for their families because they had "no food, no nothing", and they were being turned away from supermarkets.

SCOTT HAMMOND/FAIRFAX NZ Ricky Clark says he was not the first person at the train stranded in Kaikoura.

He remembered one man grabbing formula from the train for his child.

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"People were filling up trailers. And you know, I can't blame them."

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/FAIRFAX NZ The train was trapped by landslides in Mangamaunu, north of Kaikoura.

Clark described the days after the huge quake as "scary".

He was renting a house by the river in Hapuku, about 14 kilometres north of Kaikoura, but after a couple of days decided to walk to his parents' house in Raukatara​, slightly further north.

That was when he, and his friend Angus Garrett, came across the KiwiRail train trapped between landslides in Mangamaunu.

ROSS GIBLIN/FAIRFAX NZ The train was carrying items for Countdown and Cookie Time.

"There were still earthquakes happening, there were rocks falling down the hills. I've never experienced so much anxiety in my life," Clark said.

"We didn't know if the train was going to get washed away, or [if] we were going to get washed away. It sounds pretty extreme, but so does a 7.8-magnitude earthquake."

After stopping at the train, they headed back to Clark's house and it dawned on Clark what they had done, he said.

Clark said he convinced Garrett to take the goods back.

"I'd never stolen anything in my life. I'm not a thief. But we didn't have food or water or anything.

"I didn't want the police to show up about it. I could see that it wasn't going to pan out so well."

Garrett took the goods back, leaving Clark at home.

Garrett said he passed a police truck on the way there and made a split-second decision to tell the officer.

"I knew the consequences for what I had done, and I cannot argue the charges laid at the time," Garrett said.

But he was frustrated that other people who looted the train got away without being charged, he said.

"I felt the Kaikoura police were picking on and targeting us when they clearly knew that we weren't the only people taking from that train."

Clark and Garrett were discharged without conviction on theft charges on Monday at the Blenheim District Court.

Clark said he was sleeping in his van while he tried to find work and a place to live in Blenheim.