Farmers on the Inland Rd near Kaikoura are still scrambling to find water for their animals a fortnight after the quake.
With the main stock water supply cut off, a group of volunteers have stepped with a good, old fashioned DIY fix.
Liam Harnett usually buys and sells cattle for a living. However, on Sunday morning the Kaikoura local was getting his hands dirty fixing a broken water tank.
"This is what's happened to most water supplies down here. All the bottoms have blown off," Mr Harnett says.
He's one of many volunteers patching together a temporary replacement for their quake-damaged water scheme.
"You've got to get water; that's the basics. And everyone in New Zealand has a right to have water," he says.
At the moment that means pumping water from a local creek to five blocks of land.
Where that can't reach, water is trucked in from town for the thirsty dairy cows.
"There's been 300,000 litres of stock water delivered here, at the moment. Still a lot more to come, a lot more," says Kaikoura volunteer Simon Cleall.
Trevor Bolton is one of many farmers cut off from the main supply.
"This trough is running low. Where lactating cows would usually drink 100 litres of water each a day, they're currently only drinking 50 or 60," he says.
Thanks to the locals, his 1700 cows are getting enough to survive, in a quake-hit community banding together when it really counts.
Newshub.
