The owner of a historic North Canterbury homestead severely damaged in Monday's earthquake is determined to rebuild the iconic home.
Donna Ridings 106-year-old Sherwood Lodge is a write off, but she's just thankful to be alive.
Her home was one of the closest to the epicentre of Monday's quake. Now, only the crumbled remains of a historic homestead are left.
Two of its wings pancaked and are left in ruins.
A four-post bed is all that's holding up the ceiling in a guest room - and where two people had been sleeping the night before the violent shake.
"In hindsight now they would have been safe there but instinct would have been to go straight out the door and they would have been squashed," Ms Ridings says.
Ms Ridings and her partner Paul were asleep in a bedroom when the quake hit.
As the walls started to cave in they jumped out the window to safety.
The homestead's eight bedrooms and nine bathrooms have been red-stickered. However Ms Ridings's determined to rebuild.
"I'm putting in a new home," she says. "But I tell you what it will be a single story wooden house."
Until then all she can do is salvage her precious remains for safe keeping in a shipping container, ensuring the history of Sherwood Lodge will live to see another day.
Newshub.
