Canterbury has been slammed for the second time in three days by devastating gale force winds causing widespread damage.
Farmers who are still cleaning up after recent record floods are now faced with another mess.
Devastating winds brought down hundreds of trees, as the South Island braced for a battering.
"It wasn't very fun out here, it was pretty scary," said dairy farmer Josh Stuart.
A giant pine tree on a farm in Springfield came crashing down, killing stock that sheltered beneath it.
"We had an inkling that it was going to be bad, but it was worse - way worse," said Springfield farmer Anna Macauley.
"It was like being inside a jet engine with full blast and surges - it was pretty scary."
Macauley's shed was blown to pieces by the wind, which MetService say may have reached 160km/h.
"You just can't sleep through that, it really did feel like the house was going to go," she said.
Power was cut to around 1500 homes and many roads were impassable.
What made Sunday night's wind so much worse is it's the second lot of extreme galeforce nor'westers in just three days, which farmers in the area say they have never experienced.
"We had most of our damage on Thursday, both times we've heard it's been clocked over 200km/h," said Stuart.
His irrigator toppled in the winds, now destroyed. The same thing happened to many other farms across the South Island.
"The wind was absolutely howling, so it just collapsed," said Mid-Canterbury farmer Karl Henderson.
On the Hendersons' property near Methven, the gales struck on Sunday afternoon.
"The wind gusts and the dirt and everything else, you couldn't see - it was just horrific," said Megan Henderson.
The problem now for many farmers is finding irrigator parts to fix the damage.
"Parts are not easy to get into the country at the moment, there looks to be a three month wait," Megan said.
Canterbury farmers have battled several extreme weather events this year.
"I just don't think most people realise how much Mid-Canterbury's been hammered lately," said Macauley.
But they know the 'R' word better than most.
"Farmers are pretty resilient - we'll just carry on," said Stuart.
MetService on Sunday issued a red warning.
"We reserve our red warnings for the most extreme weather events that we see in New Zealand, '' said meteorologist Lewis Ferris.
Farmers are hoping that the rest of the season is more predictable.