Two forlorn cows and a calf stranded on a small patch of grass heaved up by the New Zealand’s powerful earthquake Sunday have been rescued today.

The plight of the unlucky trio went viral after being documented by a helicopter surveying the damage of the 7.5-magnitude quake that ravaged the east coast of South Island on Sunday, causing two deaths and millions of Euros of damage.

The farmer who owned the cows said they were part of a herd of 14, all of which have now been accounted for and rescued, thanks to the help of volunteers.

The rescue operation was considered challenging in view of the strong aftershocks that were still being felt today and the high risk of continued landslides.

In describing the rescue operation, the farmer, as cited by Newshub, said: “We dug a track with a number of people – the soil was quite soft because it had all been tipped over and bumbled around; we managed to get a track in and bring them out,” adding that many farmers in the area lost livestock when “the whole hillside fell during the earthquake.”

In another viral moment of the day, while New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English was telling the media of the government’s plans to provide aid to the hardest-hit areas during Parliament’s questions, he was jolted on live TV by an aftershock.  However, without even skipping a beat, he quipped: “Next time I’ll be more careful about what I say.”