Owner home for 100th birthday

'The heart kauri, totara and black pine' LIZ MCDONALD

DEAN KOZANIC/Fairfax NZ

COMFORT ZONE: Frank Helps back home in Akaroa after his farmhouse was handed back after six months of earthquake repairs.

Of all Frank Helps' 100th birthday presents, this must be the best.

His historic Akaroa farmhouse home for nearly his whole life and shattered in the September 2010 earthquake has been handed back after six months of repairs.

The handover has come just in time for his birthday today, to be celebrated at the house with 70 friends and family coming from as far as Australia.

Helps was home alone when the early-morning quake brought three chimneys crashing through his ceilings.

"I went and put my feet on the floor but changed my mind and got back into bed," he said.

Unscathed but in shock, Helps was moved to the nearby Pompallier House rest home the same day, and when repairs began he kept a close eye on proceedings.

"I knew it could be repaired because the structure is so strong, with the heart kauri, totara and black pine," he said.

Go here to see the original:
Owner home for 100th birthday