A Morrinsville teacher killed in the tragic Mount Maunganui campground landslide spent the morning trying to warn others – going to "heroic lengths to help those around her".
Photos taken by Lisa Maclennan – and included in a damning report out today – show the state of the campsite in the hours before a landslide ploughed through tents and campervans
Six people died after a large chunk of the maunga gave way following a night of extreme rainfall on January 22 this year, collapsing onto the neighbouring Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park.
Sharon Maccanico and Lisa Anne Maclennan were confirmed to have died in the slip. (Source: 1News)
Maclennan's story was included in a 268-page external review into the tragedy by former judge Paul Davison KC, which found the six deaths were "preventable". It found the outcome was a result of systemic failure.
To reach some of his conclusions, Davison used photos taken by Maclennan and interviewed her husband, Travis.
Early morning wake up and attempts to sound the alarm
At around 4.30am on the morning of the tragedy, Lisa and Travis were asleep in their campervan when the slope behind them slipped and struck the rear of their vehicle.
Thinking it was an earthquake, Maclennan woke up her husband. When they went outside, they saw that a landslide had come down and was partially underneath the campervan.
After waking the occupants of a nearby tent, they spent the next hour trying to report the slip so other campers could be warned and relocated – their first phone call went through to a security guard, who explained that nobody was on site.
An hour later, they were called by a member of the council's Emergency Operations Centre welfare team, and "it was resolved and handled as a welfare and accommodation matter".
"The issue of whether the slip that had caused the damage or had caused them to be awoken that morning was a geohazard that was not addressed in this context," Davison said.
Chilling images of a tragedy unfolding
At around 5.45am, a member of the public called Fire and Emergency NZ to report two landslides on the mountain.
Access to tracks on the mountain was closed, which Davison said was done "competently and promptly".
"But it was not accompanied by consideration being given to the implications of those slope failures to the occupants of the ocean beachside campsites who were camping around the foot of the mountain."
Maclennan took her first photo at 6.17am, which showed part of the land on the mountainside had slipped away – with muddy water flooding nearby grass. Photos taken later by another camper showed the brown water flowing towards the road.
Concerned people were still camping at the base of the mountain – the Maclennans continued to look for campground staff. They also alerted the occupants of two nearby cabins and a campervan.
Sometime after 7am, they found the camp manager, who offered to arrange a refund of their camping fees and to find a replacement electric cable for the one which had been covered by the landslip.
"He said he would be back to see them, and they waited for him, and he drove off."
At 8am, a stream of "turbid, muddy water" started flowing from the base of the mountain, carrying silt and gravel. Maclennan took photos of the flowing water.
"By then, a total of four small slips had occurred in the vicinity of the initial one", Davison said.
The Maclennans planned to check out after getting a refund for their fees, but wanted to shower before they left.
Just before 9.30am, Lisa, Sharon Maccanico, and her boyfriend, Max Furse-Kee, were showering in the amenities block. A couple of minutes later, the slope above collapsed.
"A large mass of water saturated clay of water-saturated clay, soil, colluvium, rock and debris slid rapidly down from the slope above the harbour amenities block and within seconds it had engulfed the whole building. It was rapid."
Despite frantic efforts by those nearby, the three trapped campers could not be rescued.
Måns Loke Bernhardsson, 20, from Sweden, Jacqualine Suzanne Wheeler, 71, from Rotorua, and Susan Doreen Knowles, 71, from Ngongotaha were also killed in the disaster.
In a statement shared by Travis, he said today's report "highlights Lisa’s extraordinary and selfless actions on the morning of the landslide".
"She made the safety of others at the campground her priority, and went to heroic lengths to help those around her."
The report made 20 recommendations covering the management of risks to life and the monitoring of geohazards, as well as responses to emergency warnings.
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