‘No evacuation, no panic’: Local recounts haunting hours before slip hit campsite

Friday, 23 January 2026

Colin McGonagle was at the campsite two hours before the major landslide.

A Mount Maunganui local says he watched muddy water pour from the hillside just two hours before a major landslide came down, leaving six people unaccounted for, including two teenagers.

Colin McGonagle said he took photos at the exact point the landslide occurred on Thursday morning.

McGonagle spoke to a man, who told him he and his daughter had been in a tent earlier that night and asked to leave.

“Him and I chatted and we were standing there looking at the wall and watching the water coming through it. A lot of water was coming out of there.

“He mentioned that there was a pile of dirt to the left which had fallen about half an hour earlier. A tree, he said, had fallen about 10 minutes earlier.”

Water running down to the campsite area before the slip.

A tent in a pool of muddy water before the slip.

McGonagle said water was coming through, particularly one area.

“It was wet, really wet, and we were saying it was like a wall was moving,” he said. “You could see the mud just wanting to come out.”

He said goodbye to the man and his daughter, and another older couple standing there.

“There was no panic,” he said. “There was no evacuation notice, no panic.”

Almost two hours later, a major landslide would plough into the campsite, leaving six people unaccounted for and families desperate for news of their loved ones.

'An hour and a half later it blows out like a bomb's hit it.'

Muddy water was seen pooling around the campsite before the slip.

Slip damage on the mountain before the major landslide.

McGonagle said his heart went out to the father and daughter he spoke to.

'I'm not sure if they were still there when the slip came,' he said. He hadn't heard any news since.

McGonagle said the mental images of people being led away from the campsite by police, in distress over there missing loved ones, would stay with him.

“Whether or not we could have seen it coming, I don’t know,” he said.

“It was happening. Smart people might have said, look, get out, move move the line back the cordon, get out from this area.

“It’s never happened on this side that I’ve never known.”

Camper Paul Leslie earlier told Stuff he saw muddy water pouring behind the ablution block hours before the hillside collapsed on top of it.