KEY POINTS:
"Find my daughter! She's under the rubble!" This was the anguished cry from Neil Langley, shouted across the Totara Reserve in Manawatu moments after his son, daughter and one other boy were killed when hundreds of tonnes of rock fell on them as they played in a river
on Friday evening.
They were Callum Warrick Langley, 10, his sister Keryn Sarah Langley, 8, from Palmerston North, and 13-year-old Michael Keith Liengme from Feilding. Michael's brother, 10-year-old Kevin, escaped the incident with a minor leg injury.
The parents of the children, who were picnicking beside the river when the tragedy occurred, were last night grieving with friends in Palmerston North and Feilding.
Although relatively new to New Zealand from South Africa, both couples had made an impact through their work in local schools - Neil Langley teaches science at Awatapu College while his wife Vivienne works with Duncan Liengme at Palmerston North Boys High School - she manages the library and he teaches maths. Margaret Liengme teaches science at Feilding High School.
Yesterday, a fuller picture of the horrific event emerged as those who tried to help came forward. Highland Home Christian Camp co-manager Melvyn Smith told the Herald on Sunday he was alerted to the tragedy by his neighbour, whom Vivienne Langley had come to for assistance.
With no radio or cellphone coverage in the area, Vivienne had been forced to run for help.
"My neighbour shouted across the lawn from a car, 'there's been three kids crushed by a rock fall! Call 111 and come down'."
While Smith's wife Jocelyn called emergency, he and his daughter jumped in their cars and rushed to the reserve. Two of the bodies had already been brought to the riverbank and Kevin was sitting by the river.
"I went straight to the riverbed and found the two boys laying together on the edge of the river," said Smith.
"The parents were cuddling them and hugging them and crying. I think everybody was.
"They were calling out 'Find my daughter! She's under the rubble!'
"I made sure there was no life left in the boys. They'd definitely been killed instantly, I'd say. Just looking at them, you knew. There was nothing anybody could do - it was all over."
Smith helped his neighbour and daughter get Kevin into the car.
"I was talking to [Kevin] and comforting him. I don't think his physical injuries were too bad, but mentally he was in shock.
"I just checked him over and asked him about his injuries.
"Then my daughter went and sat with the bodies of the two children and I was back consoling the mum and dad and nana at the car."
He said they all wanted to search for Keryn, but were wary of further rock falls.
"The parents were walking back and forwards. The dad kept calling out his daughter's name."
The Square Trust Rescue helicopter picked up Kevin and flew up the river in search of Keryn, returning moments later to tell police and ambulance staff where she was.
Rescuers initially hoped she had survived, although they thought she had probably been caught under the slip. After two sweeps of the river, a policeman on board spotted Keryn's body. She was 150m from the slip, in water about 75cm deep.
"You couldn't tell if she had had a chance," the helicopter pilot said.
Paramedics told the pilot, who did not want to be named, the three dead children did not have any cuts, scratches or broken bones.
"The kids were not actually buried under all the gravel. It seemed like it was more like a shockwave, it must have come down very close to the kids. Maybe thrown them away, the pressure of the air... A lot of stuff came down, so it might have been a few rocks hitting here and there."
Smith accompanied emergency workers to retrieve Keryn's body, while police talked to the parents.
"She was put in a stretcher at the river's edge and wrapped up in a blanket. The parents were asked if they wanted to see her and they did."
After the children's bodies were taken away in the ambulance, police took the Langleys to the Smiths' camp for food and drink. Kevin was checked at Palmerston North Hospital on Friday night and released into the care of his parents.
Yesterday, senior constable Mark Glentworth of Ashhurst police was still trying to understand how Kevin had survived. The boy was closest to the cliff when it came down.
"He was lucky to be where he was standing. The load of rocks fell forward rather than down."
"Amazing that he made it eh?" he said, motioning to the huge pile of rocks and earth covering half the river.
The Liengmes and the Langleys are old friends from their South African hometown in the province of KwaZulu Natal who decided together to move to New Zealand three years ago.
Both Neil and Duncan came to Palmerston North on scouting trips and established jobs, then their wives and families followed.
The trip to the swimming hole was the sort of gesture that had bonded the families so closely - across years and across continents.
On Friday afternoon Duncan and Margie - as she's known to friends - were at home marking NCEA papers from recent exams; a precise job that soaks up hours. Neil and Vivienne arrived from Palmerston North, with Callum and Keryn, offering a chance for a quiet afternoon and fun excursion for the Liengme children.
The swimming hole on the Pohangina River at the Totara Reserve, 30km northeast of Palmerston North, is a popular spot. Nearby schools hold camps there, and locals regularly swarm to picnic tables on hot days.
They families had gone for a barbecue and settled in for time alone at the river relaxing, with Neil and Vivienne watching the children playing in the water.
"They were just sitting at the picnic table by the river as hundreds of people have done," said Smith.
Others who came to help later said Duncan was the first to spot trouble, watching as chunks of the cliff began to splash around the children. He shouted to the children to run but they were unable to move in time.
As the parents looked on, hundreds of tonnes of the bank fell across the swimming hole where the children were deparately scrambling for safety.
As Duncan ran into the water, Vivienne ran up the road to nearby neighbours, crying: "The children have been covered in a landslide!"
Last night Duncan told the Herald on Sunday: "I am not great. I am hurting." He was too upset to continue talking about it.
Friends of the Liengmes said Michael loved soccer and Japanese classes at Feilding High School. A talented sportsman and gifted academic in Year 9, he represented the school age-grade cricket team.
Neighbour Tim Paterson said the teenager would often come over to play tennis on his lawn court in the front garden.
"It's a bloody shame. He was a hell of a neat kid. He was great at sport and really smart too. It's a tragedy."
Kevin's former teacher at Lytton St School, Lisa Waterland, said the school had often taken trips to the site where the landslide happened.
"The kids know the area well, and we've taken our own girls up there."
Waterland said she had never seen any landslides occurring, but the area had been devastated after the floods in 2004.
Janet Snaddon, a neighbour of the Liengmes, said she was still in shock.
"Our kids played cricket out the front of our house, it's very sad."
Tina Sims, principal of Awatapu College, said it was a tragedy for the Langley family.
"It's just dreadful. They were such a devoted family. He's a great science teacher - they're great people, just fantastic. It's tragic because they were doing a family activity together."
Sims said many at the college were very upset by the news. The teachers had a meeting yesterday morning in which they shared their grief.
Michael Lowe, a teacher at Palmerston North Boys High School, said: "They have had huge support. There has been support all morning. They are visibly distressed."
Lowe spoke with Vivienne yesterday and said she was extremely upset.
"She didn't have to say how she felt. The combination of words and her body language showed she was grief-stricken. She was crying."
Carla Na Nagara, chair of the board of trustees at Russell Street Primary School, which the Langley children attended, said the tragedy had a huge effect on the teachers at the school.
"We are deeply shocked. It is just an incredible tragedy. Callum and Keryn were highly valued and well-rounded members of the school. They will be deeply missed."
In South Africa last night, one of Margie's former teaching colleagues, Isabel Matten, said Kevin and Michael were wonderful boys and the school community had been saddened when the family emigrated.
"This is such a tragedy. I am shocked to hear this news. They were such a great family," Matten said.
"Both boys were so talented, especially on the sportsfield and that's the reason why the Liengmes decided to leave their homeland. They really wanted to give their children the sporting opportunities that we couldn't offer here."
