One of the two victims from Monday's earthquake lived in the remote alpine settlement of Mount Lyford in north Canterbury.
The village is 150 kilometres north of Christchurch, halfway between Hanmer Springs and Kaikoura. It's in the fault zone, and when the quake struck, it was in the firing line.
Dangling lines, precarious poles and buckling bridges - engineers are inspecting the remote overpass, and with State Highway 1 wiped out, they're hoping to get the inland road from Kaikoura to Waiau open as soon as possible.
The residents are in shock and it's a community in mourning. One of their own, Jo-Anne Mackinnon, did not make it out alive.
"Everyone knows each other so it's a terrible loss," says resident Ross Barnes.
Mostly log houses, there are 56 homes in the village, 700 metres above sea level. But the settlement has been walloped by the earthquake.
Residents have been cut off for days, but on Tuesday Story cautiously drove along the damaged inland road to reach Lyford to find out what has been going on.
Watch the video for the full Story report.
