Mount Maunganui landslide: Eyewitness says danger visible before campers buried

A Mount Maunganui local says a “mini waterfall” and slips were visible above the campground hours before a landslide hit but no official evacuation order was made for those camping below.

Colin McGonagle was walking just above the base of the mountain around 7.45am. When he noticed damage just above the campsite, he started taking photos.

Colin McGonagle was on scene after the first small slip and photographed the area damaged. Photo / Jason Dorday

“There was a little mini waterfall through there, lots of other streams, lots of other water coming through the embankment,” he told the Herald.

He said on the way down the hill he stopped at the campsite and spoke to a man in his 40s and his 14- or 15-year-old daughter who had been camping in a blue tent directly beneath the base of the mountain.

McGonagle said he hasn’t seen them since and fears they may have been buried in the major landslide that happened around 930am.

“I have asked if they’re okay, but nobody’s been able to say anything. If they had their tent there, there’s every possibility they’re still there and whether they were in the ablution block at the time, I don’t know,” he told the Herald.

He said there was no official evacuation order given to any of the campers despite obvious signs of a waterlogged hillside.

“Specialist geologists or whoever else in the emergency crew - people that should have known - maybe should have been there a little bit earlier and got them out of harm’s way,” he said.

It was only when McGonagle went home and started uploading photos to Facebook that he heard sirens and raced back to the scene.

When he returned, he saw a man standing next to the hot pools with his head bowed in grief which has become a memory etched in his mind.

“You could just see that he’s lost somebody he loves in that rubble. And that hopelessness and despair,” he said.

Tauranga Mayor Mahe Drysdale attends a press conference after the slip at Mount Maunganui. Photo / Alyse Wright

Tauranga Mayor Mahe Drysdale confirmed that there were reports of slips at Mount Maunganui from as early as 5am, as reported by the Herald on Thursday.

“We had reports of a small slip in a similar area around 5am. We absolutely need to understand what happened in the lead-up to this.”

He acknowledged there were questions about what transpired and said a review would be undertaken to establish the facts.

“I sympathise that there are plenty of questions and sympathise that those questions are legitimate and need to be answered,” he said.

He said the focus at the moment is getting the missing people out.

Police have confirmed six people are unaccounted for, including a 15-year-old who is the youngest victim.

Bay of Plenty District Commander Superintendent Tim Anderson said there are three other people they have been trying to contact.

“We have been unable to establish the whereabouts of three further individuals. While we do not currently believe they were involved in the slip, further inquiries are required to rule it out,” he said.

The scene is still being treated as an active rescue operation with diggers and trucks coming in and out of the cordon to remove tonnes of muddy debris.

Emergency crews initially heard voices calling for help from beneath the slip but haven’t heard anything since early Thursday morning.

Michael Morrah is a senior investigative reporter/team leader at the Herald. He won News Journalist of the Year at the 2025 Voyager Media Awards and has twice been named Reporter of the Year at the New Zealand Television Awards. He has been a broadcast journalist for 20 years and joined the Herald’s video team in July 2024.