Farmers in a pocket of mid-Canterbury are devastated after being hit by two enormous weather events in six weeks.
The May floods cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars and hours of clean-up and the latest rain has now done it again.
Redcliffs Bridge has washed out completely for the second time in six weeks, cutting off all access to eight high country stations beside Rakaia Gorge.
Ross Bowmar farms sheep and beef in the area and said the weather has been devastating.
"Certainly no one's finding it very easy at the moment, you know we got hit from the east, and now we got hit from the west so it's a bit like being punched on both sides of the face," he told Newshub.
The stress is mounting, as is the cost.
In the first flood the Bowmars lost 38 fences - "this time round those same fences have effectively been damaged but to a greater extent".
They've also lost 30 tonnes of winter feed, as the weather filled their only feed pits full of silt.
"The creek got into one silage pit the first time round and the second time it got into both silage pits," Bowmar said.
The family has also lost all electricity because their hydropower station has been damaged twice over.
Bowmar estimates both floods have cost them up to $400,000.
David Clark from Mid-Canterbury Federated Farmers said farmers are battling.
"It's mentally destroying for the farmers involved because they've worked so hard to pick themselves up and repair the damage for themselves only to see it washed away six weeks later," he said.
Losing all road access means the Upper Rakaia River farmers can't get extra feed in or their animals out.
John Harmer owns a lime quarry on the other side of the bridge that he hasn't been able to access since the first flood.
"We're going to have to come up with a long-term solution so this doesn't happen every single flood," he said.
Clark said Federated Farmers will be keeping a close eye on both farmer and animal welfare in the area.
"A family can recover from an event once but it's pretty hard to do it a second time around."
They are also all well aware it's only halfway through winter.
"We really don't need a snow event now here in Canterbury, that really would be a disaster," Clark said.
They've already faced enough of those.
