From rescue to recovery: Hope ends at Mount Maunganui

Sunday, 25 January 2026

For hours on Saturday, Tauranga locals waited at the cordon with flowers, baking and belief. By afternoon, hope had given way to grief. Virginia Fallon and Katie Hunter were there.

Saturday at the cordon started with hope: cautious and thin, but hope all the same.

On one side of the police tape, people came and went. A group of teenagers brought flowers, a woman delivered baking, and a couple turned up with a few big boxes of doughnuts.

All of the folks were locals, and none knew any of the lost. One woman was there because “it seemed the right thing to do”; a man because he “just can’t seem to stay away.”

And another man, who may well have met some of the missing, was there because that’s where he’d been since Thursday when the landslide came crashing onto Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park. He was a worker there, he says, and he’s devastated.

“I feel sick with sadness.”

Yet Saturday started with hope, at least for those on the outside. It was still being called a rescue then, even after all the time that had passed without any good news.

On one side of the cordon two diggers could be seen, their great yellow arms rising, scooping, stopping then moving again. At other times people in hi-vis gear were seen hugging each other or simply standing still with slumped shoulders and bowed heads.

On the other side of the cordon, meanwhile, waiting was the dominant activity: waiting for news, confirmation and for the ground to give up what it was holding.

“I’m holding out for a miracle,” said Joy McIntosh, who’d come along for a look and was doing just that from under her umbrella, “I’m not giving up hope just yet.”

But by afternoon the hoping was over, when Bay of Plenty District Commander Superintendent Tim Anderson made the heartbreaking announcement that the rescue had become a recovery.

Anderson said search and rescue had been, since Thursday morning, “living in hope that someone was still alive. We never ruled that out for the first couple of days”.

“Everyone’s been hoping for the best, but we’re now in a situation where overnight we have found human remains.”

Chief Coroner Judge Anna Tutton said they were working to reunite loved ones with their families as soon as possible, but reiterated that disaster victim identification was complex and painstaking.

“We know families will be desperate to have the people they love reunited with them. We understand that, and that drives our actions. We have to get it right. We work very closely with police and other specialists. We follow international best practice. The last thing we want is to have any family traumatised by having a person other than their family member returned to them.

“I want to assure the families and friends of those who are unaccounted for that once recovery of [remaining] victims is possible, they will be treated with dignity and respect.”

A few hours later, the victims’ names were released.

There isn't much to be gleaned about them so far, except from what they revealed of themselves online: A much loved mother and grandmother, a recently married mother with a huge zest for life and passion for her work, and a young couple in love, soaking up the last of the summer holidays before they were to return to school.

Some relatives were too upset to speak yesterday, but schools and workplaces paid tribute to their friends, colleagues and loved ones, all appearing stunned, and in deep grief.

Lisa Maclennan, 50, was a talented costume maker who, along with her husband, ran a performing arts company for young people in the Waikato, according to previous reporting.

Morrinsville Intermediate School principal Jenny Clark posted on Facebook on Saturday afternoon that the school was saddened to report that Literacy Centre tutor Maclennan was among those trapped in the landslide.

“We continue to hope and pray for Lisa.”

Susan Knowles, 71, was a grandmother and Rotorua-based property manager who regularly holidayed at the Mount.

One of the two women are believed to be one of the heroes seen by witnesses warning campers of the impending danger in the early hours of Thursday, only to be later lost in the slip.

Another man who ran into the slip to save others was also credited as being a hero although it unclear if he is one of the six named by the police as missing, presumed dead.

Sharon Maccanico and Max Furse-Kee, both 15, attended Pakuranga College. Maccanico’s social media page says she is a “dancer from Auckland, with Italian roots”, and was in a relationship with Furse-Kee, also from Auckland.

Furse-Kee’s mother last night posted, “Hug your babies, life can change in a moment.”

Avellino Today was reporting that the small town of Picarelli, east of Naples, was praying for Sharon’s safe return, while Pakuranga College said it had been in contact with the pair’s families to “express our heartfelt sympathy and sorrow”.

“Many members of the college have been deeply impacted by the news and we are working to support students and staff in the coming days and weeks,” a statement said. “The wellbeing of our college community is paramount as the school year starts next week under incredibly sad circumstances.”

Måns Loke Bernhardsson, 20, from Sweden, and Jacqualine Suzanne Wheeler, 71, from Rotorua, were also named as victims.

Earlier in the afternoon, the complexity of the recovery mission - and why it had taken 48 hours to get to such a point - became clearer as David Guard, Fire and Emergency regional manager, described the very delicate delayering of the dirt and mud - the scale frequently described by those who are there as of unimaginable strength and size.

It was a harrowing task for the 25 search and rescue officers as they sifted over days. By Saturday afternoon they were approaching the camp's ablution block where victims were last seen entering or calling for help.

“It’s taken two days to get to this point, but they’re getting closer,” Superintendent Anderson said yesterday.

“From what we have seen, the building suffered catastrophic damage and we are confronted with the reality that it is highly unlikely anyone would have been able to survive.

“The material that slipped from the mountain is sodden. It’s heavy and hit with massive force. The impact, movement and weight means this is an incredibly challenging scene to work through, and those involved are doing their jobs admirably and respectfully.”

Guard described searchers, working with contractors, diggers and police as operating “in a very, very delicate way”.

“So even though they’re very large diggers, they’re actually delayering very sensitively, just thin slivers at a time to ensure that, you know, anything in the way of human remains is identified.”

John Armstrong, civil engineer from Armstrong Contractors, later described to the Sunday Star-Times the meticulous work involved in rescue and recovery operations like the ongoing one at the camp site.

“Normally you'd dig it in 100mm layers and someone would actually go through with a shovel and actually dig down 100mm level, and then you would actually dig that out with a machine.

“Once that level is moved or whatever, you then take down another 100mm with a spade or a shovel, or you would you'd poke the area, and then you'd take it out again.”

Later on Saturday, Ngāti Ranginui iwi extended its “deepest aroha and condolences to the families and loved ones of those who tragically lost their lives at Mauao and Pāpāmoa this week.

“Our hearts are heavy, and our people are deeply saddened by these events…To the grieving families, we share in your sorrow.”

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon also thanked those continuing to work at the campground, as well as the“ first responders and local heroes who put themselves in harm's way to help others in the initial aftermath of the landslide.

'For three days since the landslide occurred at Mount Maunganui campground, every New Zealander has been hoping for a miracle. Today, it is devastating to receive the news we have all been dreading.“

Now, he said, the focus was on recovery and supporting those who were grieving the loss of their beloved family members.

That doesn’t just include the campground victims, but two family members whose bodies were recovered from a Welcome Bay home also hit by a slip during the storm, and a man who disappeared in flood waters north of Auckland but whose body was believed to have been recovered last night.

“To the families who have lost loved ones - every New Zealander is grieving with you.”

And back at the cordon, those on the outside certainly were. For them - the strangers, locals, good folks with their gifts of baking and bottles of water - Saturday ended with hope of a different kind.

“I hope those families are being held close by people,” said Jamie, who preferred not to give his last name.

“I hope they know we’ve been waiting for them too.”