Resilience and community spirit have shone through in North Canterbury in the aftermath of the earthquake. With no active civil defence post in operation in Cheviot in the days after the 7.8 quake, a group of locals mobilised a task force to support those in need.
The day after the earthquake, Jamie McFadden from Hurunui Natives and the team from the North Canterbury Veterinary Clinic led by Ian Page and Emma Le Pine swung into action. Their first prioirty was to contact farmers in the district to make sure they were okay.
"For the next few days we were flat out trying to meet people's needs. Chimneys were down; we were linking people up with builders and plumbers, organising volunteers and then there were all the issues with road closures and water schemes so it was a fairly busy few days there!"
Further north at Mendip Hills Station, farm manager Simon Lee has been repairing broken water pipes and clearing slips in time for weaning. There are also a number of cracks cutting through the property.
"There are big scars on the land and some of them are quite wide and deep and the jump ups on the cracks are up to a metre twenty high" he says.
Ben Lissington's dairy farm in Waiau is close to the fault line and the road leading up to it is so badly damaged that milk tankers are now having to use a rough farm track to get to the rotary shed.
"We've got a fair few new cracks and a rolling farm now rather than a flat farm. It was reasonably flat but it's definitely not anymore!"
