Farmers in cut-off rural Hawke's Bay say the mental stress of managing destroyed farms and being unable to get stock to market is immense.
As they wait for critical infrastructure to be rebuilt, farmers said the best thing they can do is keep looking out for each other.
A makeshift bridge built over the river is a symbol from the sky of the number eight wire mentality in action there. But a huge source of stress for farmers is that empty trucks can cross the bridge, but the structure isn't strong enough to support it coming back with a load of cattle.
"It's going to be hard. Our job's easy compared to these farmers. They've got no facilities, no fences, water facilities gone," said Farmers Transport operations manager Graham Lowes.
Those farmers include Brent and Jacs Paterson, who've built back a bridge on their farm and lost 40 of their 100 paddocks.
"We've lost about 6km of fencing. So we've got about 600 hectares in Patoka here, lost about 6km and up to 100ha of slips," Brent said.
In one area, there used to be 10 paddocks across a face. Now it's just one block after multiple fences were taken out by slips.
"They're going, I put my heart and soul into these farms and it's been ripped out. Where do we go from now?" said Patoka farmer Nick Dawson.
"We've gone through that grief cycle of shock and anger and all that sort of thing, so we just have to take a breath and make the right decisions at the right times," Brent said.
While they wait for bridges to be restored and rebuild their fences, Brent said the best thing farmers who are struggling can do is reach out for help.
"The support's there and if everyone rings their neighbour every day, it will be fine," he said.
Meanwhile, Dawson said Cyclone Gabrielle's devastation has raised huge questions for farmers.
"We're talking about farm succession. Do our kids want to come to the farms? Some of these farms are fourth to fifth generations - why would the child want to come onto a bombzone?" Dawson said.
He said the future will mean rethinking the way they farm to adapt to changing weather patterns, like not planting pine trees on steep hills.
"Perhaps nature knows best. Perhaps we need to retire land and let native trees come back on their own and let the birds do their stuff."
Because despite all of the challenges, they can't imagine working anywhere else.
