Deep rents and chasms zig-zag across the farm "and whole hillsides have just disappeared down into the gullies," Rebekah says.
"It's chaos, just unbelievable."
The 2000ha hill country beef and sheep farm has been in Rebekah's family's hands for nearly 100 years and she and husband Dave came back to work it 12 years ago.
A neighbour had a covenant on one of their boundaries and Rebecca's dad's cousin, Miles Giller, is an "amazing botanist" and the QEII National Trust's North Canterbury representative.
The Kellys, who are members of Federated Farmers, had been mulling over a covenant and after their enthusiasm was fired up at a Ballance Farm Awards event, Miles agreed to survey the area of the farm they had in mind.
"All the stars were in alignment, I guess," Rebekah says. A decade-long process of re-developing the farm to how they wanted it was capped three or four years ago with fencing off the natural gully.
It's steep country and the work had to be done by a fencing contractor, but the Kellys pitched in, including laying out the fencing line with the bulldozer.
Rebekah says the fact the QEII Trust met nearly half the cost of the fencing was a big help.
The Hurunui council's identification of Significant Natural Areas across the district's farmland and insistence such sites be protected had kicked off some resentment, and even court action, when the council said there was no money available to help property owners with the job.
The QEII Trust backed its desire for protecting significant landscapes with practical help and some funding, Rebekah says. Post-earthquake, the Kellys are just taking each day as it comes.
"Most of the stuff causing us the major headaches was uninsurable infrastructure. Not only do we have to think how we're going to farm but think up a plan how we're going to get the cash.
"We'd spent the last 10 years using every bit of spare money we had. It will take another cycle of good years of farming like that, and time, before we can get all the fences and other stuff back to where it was."
