Behind corrugated iron and stacked wood is a tool shed where Waiau local Lindsay Colin now calls home.
"I'm living in the shed right now," he says.
"It's about the same temperature as outside at times.
"The wind blowing through is the worst, it keeps you awake, but running away isn't an option."
His home and business, the Waiau pub, was left badly damaged following the devastating Kaikoura earthquake last year.
And it's likely to be off limits for another two years.
Waiau was one of the worst hit in the earthquake being just five kilometres from the epicentre. More than 50 properties in the district were red stickered, several of them in the town still remain broken and behind cordons.
Homes have been left abandoned by its owners with some leaving behind the couches and living room tables.
Cath Ferguson's home survived, but they lost their garage and sleep out.
"We're pretty much it down here. It gets lonely, it's very quiet, that's one of the biggest things we've noticed," she says.
Her 10-year-old daughter not the only one living amongst the quake damage.
"At the moment I'm living in a shed house, so it's a shed and a house. And we were living in a caravan for four months," she says.
Sheds are now becoming Waiau's temporary housing solution for those struggling to get back on their feet almost a year on from the quake.
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