Fraser Guise, of Winton’s STIHL SHOP drove 2000kms to Nelson and back in 29 hours with his dad, former farmer Merv Guise, to collect more than 50 generators, and has another 35 on the way, all pre-ordered.

Frustrated with the trucking company whose Christchurch staff told him last Friday that they could only get the generators to Christchurch where they would sit until after the long weekend, likely arriving on Wednesday, Fraser did the job himself.

He and Merv set off at 6pm on Friday, arriving back from Nelson with the generators at 1.30am Sunday, some of the customers that desperate that they came and collected them at that hour.

Fraser and his dad were both getting pretty exhausted by the time they hit Dunedin on the way home.

“We were swapping drivers at every town.”

Fraser missed his one-year-old son Mac’s first birthday Friday evening just to do the good turn.

Fraser and Merv Guise load up with generators in Nelson in an effort to supply their Southland client's businesses and households. Photo: Supplied

It was a stressful wait for his wife, Sarah, back in Winton with their three-year-old and one-year-old, and no power at their home.

“I went to my in-laws as they had power, and communications were down so I didn’t know where they were,” she says.

“Yeah, Sarah and I were having discussions about me going, but I’d made my mind up,” Fraser grins. “I’m not open to suggestions from other people when I’ve made my mind up.”

The good turn was reciprocated when the long-distance drivers returned.

“Our amazing staff all turned out last Sunday morning during a long weekend without being asked to help unbox and run up the generators ready for people.”

His parents and Sarah’s also helped.

There was so much at stake, or steak!

“Not only has it been vital to keep water pumps moving for dairy farmers, but most farmers have thousands of dollars’ worth of meat in their freezers, Fraser says.

“The pharmacy also had stock that needed to be kept cold and urgently needed a generator.”

He reckons they’d probably sold 20 times the generators they’d sell in a year since the storm struck last Thursday.

The greatest need seemed to be getting robotic automatic milk feeders going for calves and power to get pumps working to get water to stock troughs.

Farmers with virtual fences were also needing power to run the collars on the cows to keep them in their assigned paddocks.

Fraser’s since been faced with a big rush on chainsaws coming in for repair and customers needing to get generators going that have been stored in sheds as Southlanders get stuck into the cleanup.

“One friend at Groper’s Bush has 100 trees down on his farm,” he says

As for wee Mac, Mum was concerned she didn’t even get to give him his present on Friday as their business was so busy, but he was none the wiser.