Kerre Woodham: The damning report on the Mount Maunganui landslide

Author: Kerre Woodham ,
Publish Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2026, 12:38pm

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The report into this devastating landslide at Mount Maunganui is so desperately sad, because it was all so preventable. Six people died when the landslide from Mauao hit the council-owned campground at the foot of the mountain on January 22nd after record rainfalls, including one heroic woman who knew something was wrong. She and her husband were staying at the campground in a campervan, were woken at 4:30 when a landslide hit the back of their campervan, a minor landslip. She knew something was wrong. From that point, she and her husband partner tried to call someone, anyone, someone who was in charge who could make the call to say, "No, it's fine, it's safe," or "No, get out."

So acting on their instincts, acting on what they could see, what they could sense, picking up on the warning signs from the mountain itself, they tried desperately to get someone to make the call, and when they couldn't, they raised the alarm themselves. They cut short their stay and thought, "Just before we get in the campervan and go, we'll have a shower." Her partner went first, Lisa went second, and that was when the landslip hit. She knew.

The damning review prepared for the council by retired High Court Judge Paul Davison found report after report over the decades had either been commissioned or submitted to the Tauranga City Council, outlining the landslide risks and rockfall hazards to the campground over many years, but no action was ever taken. No one said, "Hey, maybe if we've had a number of reports saying you shouldn't have a campground here, we'll move it. Move it somewhere else and give a good clearance area around the mountain." No. It was, Davison said, systemic failure with tragic consequences. Something as simple and basic as the trigger action response plan recommended by experts over the years would have helped the council and campground staff identify risks such as muddy water or sudden waterfalls appearing, forecast heavy rain. That would have been triggers for evacuating campers, but nobody knew. That information wasn't passed on. Never happened.

And the review found no one person is responsible. Heather had the Chief Executive of the Tauranga City Council, Marty Grenfell, on Drive last night and asked him who was responsible.

"Mr. Davison made it very clear that no one individual, no single person is accountable or responsible for this. He's described the failings as systemic across the organisation dating back to 1999 when the first Dutch report was received."

Heather asked Marty Grenfell, as leader of that organisation, whether he would resign. He said no. He believes he's the best person to lead the organisation into and to fixing the systemic failures. Paul Davison KC, his final thoughts were that the review had been so sobering in its simplicity. There was nothing complex about what went wrong. It wasn't a hazard that was unknown, hidden, or beyond the reach of foresight, he said. For more than two decades, one competent consultant after another identified the landslide hazard to the campground. He said the landslide hazard was located on the very slope that failed.

Davison said there was a previous warning that a holiday accommodation beneath the mount slopes was imprudent and the risk to sleeping occupants was high. He said this warning was repeated over many years. He said what was missing was not knowledge, but an organisation able to hold, assess, and act on that knowledge. When a loss of life occurs on the scale and when it is accepted that there has been systemic failure on the part of a body or organisation that led to the deaths, it has been the convention that the leader fall on their sword. Nobody is saying Marty Grenfell is personally responsible for what happened, but he led an organisation that was. He is responsible for the organisation that has failed so many families and as such, he should go.