“You feel grateful as opposed to hard done by,” Dave says.
Their 2000ha sheep and beef farm in the Waiau hills of North Canterbury erupted in the November 2016 Kaikoura quake.
A slip blocking the Leader River created a 1km-long dam the world soon knew as Lake Rebekah and the quake’s huge thrust of energy formed the mind-boggling, three-metre Waiau Wall.
Like the people of Christchurch, the Kellys are still making the mental adjustment to their new terrain.
“Even the wild animals had a bit of a shake-up, just sitting on the ridge tops wondering what happened.”
Every day they see sheer bluffs where there used to be farm tracks.
Rolling ridges disappeared and some sheep had to be rescued from crevices wide and deep enough to stand in.
In the first few weeks after the quakes the Kellys asked themselves if they were in the right business.
The quake unravelled more than 10 years of hard work on Woodchester Farm, from fencing to QE2 covenants.
The family has spent about half a million dollars repairing fences and buildings and restocking.
Now Rebekah is convinced the quake experience made them stronger as a couple and as farmers.
“You ask yourself ‘is this worth fighting for?’ And the answer is yes.”
She did briefly consider whether it would be easier to pack up and move to Australia but it would likely have taken more than a bone-shaking earthquake to make her quit.
Rebekah grew up on the farm, which has been in her family for more than 100 years.
Understandably, she thinks of it as turangawaewae, a place to stand.
“There’s four generations here of just turning the lights out and just gutsing it out. That’s part of our story.”
For a while, the Kellys’ inclination to dig in didn’t serve them especially well.
They buried themselves in farm and family at the expense of personal wellbeing.
Rebekah took the shoes off her horses, telling herself she didn’t have time for riding.
Looking back, it was like the couple was trying to put the world right all at once – and it was never going to end well.
They now cut themselves some slack.
The shoes are back on the horses and the family takes opportunities to get off farm, whether it’s for sport or invitations to share their experience with farming groups and others.
Rebekah says one of the best things she did was joining the Agri-Women’s Development Trust and the Post-Quake Farming Group, both of which gave her new insight into running family and farm business.
Dave has discovered a bit about himself too.
Woodchester has never looked picture-perfect like the pages of a seed catalogue so he and Rebekah decided they were better off farming to the land’s limits.
He also realised it’s pointless getting hung up trying to be a champion farmer.
“If you don’t increase your stocking rate by a couple of units per hectare in the first couple of years you’re not a loser.”
Rebekah says since the quakes they’ve become better about involving the whole family in decision-making.
“When both members of the farming team are under the pump you’re really in trouble.
“If the whole team isn’t involved in setting goals and making changes it’s much harder.”
Now, instead of wasting mental energy on second-guessing their decisions, they tend to agree a course of action and go for it.
“It’s just about being able to ride through the small little humps and hollows. You make a decision and don’t look back.”
The Kellys are part of a government and industry-funded initiative future-proofing quake-damaged properties across Hurunui, Kaikoura and southern Marlborough.
Recognising that the craggiest bits of the farm have never been easy to subdivide, the farm is extensifying, as Dave calls it.
That means accepting some of their broken hillsides are irretrievably lost to pastoral farming as they knew it.
Therefore, they’re working out the best alternative or complementary land uses, including passive forms of income like beekeeping.
“It’s creating a little bit of money that you fix things up with that doesn’t eat grass.”
Stronger beef and lamb prices are helping to pay farm repairs out of regular cashflow faster than they expected.
It all helps the family to look at life “beyond the black and whiteness of business”, Dave says.
