Historic homestead destroyed in quake

A historic homestead is in tatters and the four other properties on a north Canterbury sheep and beef farm were damaged in today's earthquake.

Every property was damaged at the 6130ha Mendip Hills Station in Parnassus, 20 minutes north of Cheviot. Wool sheds were shaken, scattering tools everywhere, and fences were bowled.

The property still has no power and water and farm manager Simon Lee said they were relying on the natural water on the hills until they got the water systems up and running again.

"Everything is just wrecked.

"On the farm there are a lot of landslides, fences [damaged], all that kind of stuff. The tidy-up of that could take a year."

Pipes were also broken.

Lee and his eight workers spent the early hours of today coming up with a plan to work without power and water and the rest of the day was focused on cleaning up the battered houses.

The house Lee lives in with his family was badly damaged and they were staying with friends tonight near Cheviot to have some respite from the relentless aftershocks.

"All night, all morning and today - there was another big one today - 6.5. And we were just leaving to come to friends. We came half an hour south and there was another good jolt."

Lee said only about three of the houses or at least parts of them were still liveable.

The worst hit was the 80-year-old historic homestead on the farm. It had collapsed and the sides had come off the house. The house was empty because it was only used by the farm owners once a month.

Power was expected to be restored at the farm tomorrow.

Lee also owned a holiday home in Kaikoura, which he said was "buggered". He had been told all the bricks had fallen off it.