Two bodies found in Pāpāmoa landslide, rescue operation continues at Mount
Thursday, 22 January 2026
What you need to know:
Two rescue operations are under way in the Bay of Plenty - one in Mt Manganui, one in Pāpāmoa
Several people are missing after a slip has crashed into a campsite in Mount Maunganui
Two people are missing, and another is seriously hurt, after a landslip hit a home in Pāpāmoa.
Police are winding down the search for a man who was swept into a river near Warkworth until Friday.
There are states of emergency in Whangārei, Thames Coromandel and Hauraki Districts and for Bay of Plenty and Tairāwhiti
Two bodies have been found in the Pāpāmoa landslide, police have confirmed.
After a landslip hit a house on Welcome Bay Road, Papamoa earlier today, the two were missing.
Police have now confirmed that they have recovered their bodies this evening.
Rescue operations continue at the Mount Maunganui campsite that was also hit by a landslide on Thursday.
It’s being reported six people there are unaccounted for - including children - following the major slip at the campsite.
On Thursday evening, Fire and Emergency deputy National Commander Megan Stiffler said the search at Mount Maunganui will continue overnight, “until the search is complete”.
Speaking to RNZ on Thursday evening, emergency management minister Mark Mitchell said teams are working “flat out”, with sniffer dogs and technology to find people in the rubble.
“It’s a really challenging situation because we’re trying to work at speed to get to people while at the same time, working in an unstable environment,” Mitchell said.
“Another slip could happen.”
He said there is “some idea” of how many people are involved but would not go into detail, and would not confirm whether there are children under the slip.
“Obviously this is enormous stress and anxiety on the families who are sitting there worrying about their family members. We’ll talk about numbers when we are absolutely sure what they are,” he said.
Families waiting for news being supported
The families who were waiting to hear about their family members were waiting at the surf club and have been moved, Mitchell said.
He has spoken to all the families, and been with them most of the afternoon.
“You can imagine how they are doing. It’s deeply stress, there is lots of anxiety,” he said.
Asked whether the slip, spotted about an hour before it came down at about 9:30am on Thursday, should have been cause for concern earlier, Mitchell said the damage was still being assessed.
“There will be an after-action review that I am sure will be done all events but now the focus is quite simply on recovering people at the campground and at Welcome Bay,” he said.
“We’ve had extensive damage down a big chunk of our eastern seaboard. Now we’re in assessment mode, with some communities still cut off, a large amount of slips and power outages.
“We had five states of emergency declared so the geographic size of [this event] has been large but the response, in my view, has been amazing.”
Prime Minister Christoper Luxon, who is going to the deluged region on Friday, posted on social media that he spoke with mayors from across the top of the North Island about their experiences.
“Right now, the Government is doing everything we can to support those impacted,” he wrote.
“We are standing with these local communities in the response – and we will stand with them in the recovery too.
“Once again, my thanks go out to emergency responders, local marae, the Defence Force, and all those putting themselves in harm’s way to help their fellow Kiwis.”
In Pāpāmoa, two people are unaccounted for after a landslide on Welcome Bay Road.
There were 305 weather related callouts to Fire and Emergency from 1am on Tuesday until 4pm on Thursday, from Northland, Bay of Plenty and Tairāwhiti, Stiffer said.
“We ask people to avoid the Mount to allow emergency services to have the space to work safely. There is still a high risk from further landslides in the weather affected areas.”
In Warkworth, north of Auckland, police were winding up a search for a man who was swept away and will return on Friday depending on the water levels in the river.
Locals gutted by the landside
Among those staying at the site was Paul Leslie, who arrived in his caravan on Wednesday night, thinking it would be a good place to shelter from the rain.
When he returned to the campsite after heading to the shops on Thursday morning, he discovered the slip had struck, burying an area including the ablutions block.
His caravan was not impacted, and he was able to leave the site.
He had also stayed there last week, and said it had been much busier then, whereas fewer people had been staying when the slip occurred.
He did not know any of the people who were missing, but said it was “gutting” and he felt for those impacted.
Auckland resident Bruce Moore was among the eyewitnesses, and said he was entering the hot pools adjacent to the campsite when he heard “a hell of a noise” as trees were uprooted and the earth gave way.
“I saw the land just come down with a mighty crash,” he said.
The next sound was the screams of those there when it happened.
The Mount was one of his favourite spots, and he had been staying in a building nearby.
His daughter and her family had been staying at the campsite, but luckily they had left yesterday.
However, she had showered in the very same block that had been buried by the slip, and was feeling quite shaken by the news of what had happened.
It was a very sad situation, Moore said, but he had been impressed to witness the speedy response by emergency services, who were doing a very good job.
Staggering rainfall numbers
MetService reported Tauranga recorded 274mm of rain from 9am on Wednesday to 9am on Thursday, making it the wettest day since local records began in 1910.
About 300mm of rain had fallen in the 24 hours to 7am on Thursday in Whangamata and Whitianga on Coromandel with similar readings in Waihi Beach in Bay of Plenty. “It is truly staggering numbers,” MetService meteorologist Katie Lyons said.
This week’s weather was the 20th ‘Red Warning Event’ issued by MetService since it introduced the current warning system in May 2019.
Gisborne mayor Rehette Stoltz said with Te Araroa, Wharekahika/Hicks Bay still cut off, the priority was ensuring homes were inhabitable and that there were groceries available in supermarkets.
“We are very relieved that everyone is safe and that the sun is out but we have our work cut out for us,” she said.
Climate change adds to rainfall: expert
Climate scientist Professor James Renwick said the entire storm has a “climate change signature” and that without the gradual and worsening warming of the planet, this week’s rainfall might have been up to 20% less intense.
Renwick said the storm was well forecasted – which direction it was coming from, when it would land and how much rain it would bring – and though it didn’t quite reach tropical cyclone level, it got close.
Without offering hard numbers, he suggested if climate change was not a factor, the same storm could have been 15-20% less intense. The heaviest rains that reached up to 30mm of rain in an hour could have been 30-40% less intense.
“It would have still been miserable, but not as extreme as we’ve seen. That landslide at Mount Maunganui maybe wouldn’t have happened, who knows,” Renwick said.
“It’s probably harder than doing the weather,” he said of predicting landslips.
“There are so many antecedent factors – how wet was the soil, what is growing there, as well as the rainfall.
“Part of the issue I am guessing, is that we already had very heavy rain in the region last week so the ground would have been primed to slide – an extra dose of rain in the last 24 hours wouldn’t have help.
“As the climate changes, we make these extreme events more extreme and more difficult to deal with.”
He wants a nationally coordinated, government-led approach to climate change so that regional authorities are not left to grapple with the varied impacts of climate change alone.