A damning review into the fatal Mount Maunganui landslide details how one of the six victims went to extraordinary lengths to warn and help fellow campers before she was killed. National Crime Correspondent Sam Sherwood reports.

It was day three of what was a “spur of the moment” decision by Morrinsville teacher Lisa Maclennan and her husband Travis to spend a few nights at the Beachside Holiday Park in Mount Maunganui.

They still had one more night booked, but after being woken by a slope coming down behind their campervan at about 4.30am, the couple spent the next several hours helping fellow campers and trying to alert others before deciding, at about 8.30am, that they wanted to leave.

About 9:15am, after emptying the campervan toilet receptacle, Lisa Maclennan went to have a shower in the amenities block.

Also staying at the campground were 15-year-olds Sharon Maccanico and her boyfriend Max Furse-Kee. The couple had travelled with Maccanico’s parents.

Maccanico’s parents had initially decided to cut the holiday short two days in following some strong windows with heavy rain predicted. However, when Maccanico’s father went to cancel the remainder of their booking he was encouraged by a member of the office to stay and said they had the option of renting a caravan or a cabin.

The family decided to rent a caravan to stay in until the storm passed, when they would return to their tent.

On the morning of 22 January, the sky was blue and the family had chosen a new campsite and were ready to move.

Shortly before 9:30am, Maccanico and Furse-Kee went off to the amenities block to have showers.

Minutes later, a large landslide came down, hitting about 30 campsites and engulfing the amenities block which included toilets, showers and laundry facilities.

Six people were killed. They were Maclennan, Maccanico, Furse-Kee and three others who were also in the amenities block, Susan Knowles, Jacqualine Wheeler and Måns Loke Bernhardsson.

On Wednesday, an external review by retired high court judge Hon Paul Davison KSO KC, commissioned by the Tauranga City Council, was released.

The report said information identifying a risk to life was received, filed, discussed, forwarded – and then left.

“The failure was not the fault of any one person; it was the failure of a system that enabled an identified risk to life to remain unowned, un-escalated and unmanaged.”

Also inside the 268-page report lies details about the “heroic lengths” Maclennan took to help those around her.

The Maclennans arrived at the Beachside Holiday Park in the campervan they had borrowed from Lisa’s family on 20 January.

At 11.57am the following day, Travis received a Civil Defence Emergency Alert on his phone.

The alert told Travis that MetService had issued a red severe rain warning for Bay of Plenty from 9am to 9am the following day.

“Put safety first. Don’t take any chances. Act quickly if you see rising water. Do not try to walk, swim, or drive in floodwater.

“Avoid all non-essential travel. Bring pets indoors and move livestock to high ground where possible.”

The alert also said to “be prepared to evacuate”.

After returning to the campground that afternoon they remained in the campervan for the night.

About 4.30am on 22 January, Lisa woke up after hearing a noise and feeling the campervan move, the report said.

“She woke Travis who says that Lisa was panicking and initially thought that it was an earthquake.

“She went out and saw that the slope behind the campervan had come down and hit the rear of their vehicle. Some of the mud and soil from the slip had gone under the campervan covering the electric cable which was connected to a power bollard.”

Lisa moved the campervan and then woke the people who were in a blue tent that was beside them as she was worried they could be trapped if any more of the slope failed.

The report said the Maclennans wanted to “urgently” contact the management of the holiday park to tell them what had happened “so that other campers would be alerted to the risk of any further slope failures”.

At 4.43am, Travis called the numbers printed on the holiday park information sheet.

The call was initially answered by a security firm who transferred him to the Tauranga City Council (TCC) contact centre.

A transcript of the call said Travis told them they were staying at the holiday park and that they were trying to get hold of them.

“There’s been a slip where we’re staying, and it’s affected a few of us, and we obviously don’t know.

“Well, we want to get hold of them so that we can let them know, but it’s affected a few people here…”

He added that “a few people here need to be relocated”.

The contact centre staffer asked Travis if he had tried the intercom which should put him straight to the cellphone of a person whose name is redacted in the report and named Staff Member Q.

He replied he hadn’t as they were “a little bit flustered, so we rang straight through to the number, and it put us straight through to you guys”.

The staffer put Travis on hold and made two calls to the campground’s after-hours number, however neither call was answered.

At 4.52am the staffer called the Emergency Management Officer’s (EMO) phone and spoke to a Staff Member B and transferred Travis’ call to her.

Travis told Staff Member B about the slip that had come down. He said they had found the intercom which they were going to use. Staff Member B said she would get someone to call them back.

At 5.15am, Staff Member B emailed the TCC Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) operations, welfare and intelligence to tell them about two phone calls she’d had.

One was about a call she’d had from police about a slip that had taken down a house on Waitaha Road with a 10-year-old and 70-year-old missing.

The other was from Travis. She detailed what he had told her and said she’d told him she would get someone to call him back.

The report said that after his call with Staff Member B, the Maclennans tried the intercom and knocked on the walls of the campground office but had no luck.

They then noticed that another landslip had come down further along the driveway towards two cabins.

The couple woke the occupants of the cabins, as well as some people who were in a campervan nearby.

At 5.21am Staff Member C, who was on duty supporting the EOC controller, called Travis.

In the EOC welfare log she noted the conversation and said Travis indicated he was assisting a neighbouring camper to move their belongings.

“There had been no injuries and Travis had a location in the campground that was appropriate to shelter in place until he could raise assistance from a staff member.

“Travis was advised to call back on the EOC welfare number should he need any further support. No further calls from Travis by 7am handover.”

The report says that at 5.47am a local resident (referred to as Member of the Public A), who had been walking near the mountain, called 111 after seeing two large landslides had come down on the ocean side near the surf club building.

His call was transferred to Fire and Emergency (FENZ) who told him that landslides were a council matter and that FENZ would notify them.

A FENZ staffer then called the TCC contact centre and told Staff Member A that they had been informed that there had been a landslide at the bottom of the mountain.

The caller had “mentioned about potentially having some problems at the Holiday Park, if the weather continues”.

Member of the Public A went to the surf club to tell the lifeguards about the landslides and started waking some campers.

Staff Member A called Staff Member D, whose responsibilities included the maintenance and repair of the walkways and tracks on Mauao. He then called Staff Member F and they made a decision to immediately close all public access points onto the mountain.

Staff Member D then drove to the campground.

The Maclennans returned to the campground office several times between 5.30am and 7am to try to find someone to tell about the slips. By now, three landslips from the slope above and behind their campervan had come down.

The report said the couple also spoke with other campers.

“Travis Maclennan recalls that while he and Lisa were concerned about what had happened and thought that other campers near the base of the mountain should be warned and moved, there was no panicking.”

By dawn, other campers gathered around and the couple told them why they had moved their campervan.

The couple took several photos of the slips and the blue tent, the earliest was about 6.16am.

At 6.40am, Staff Member J, who had been alerted to the landslide by Staff Member D, sent a message to a Teams chat group used by asset managers at TCC’s City Operations and Spaces and Places team.

“Major slip on mount by camp site heading [there] now to meet [Staff Member D]”.

The report also referred to a Staff Member Q, who started monitoring the weather on 21 January. About 4pm he received a call advising that heavy rainfall was forecast.

During the afternoon and evening he looked out for any flooding around the holiday park.

About 11pm he called a First Security staffer asking them to keep a look out for any flooding or damage.

“He told them to contact him if there was anything to report, regardless of the time.”

About 6.30am on 22 January, he woke and checked the campground’s beachfront CCTV camera on his phone and saw flooding all around the beachfront campsites.

Shortly after he got a call from TCC Call Centre and was told that City Operations and other TCC staff were out in front of the campground office.

Staff Member Q went over to the ocean beachfront to see the flooding and saw that a large slip had come down and covered the stone stairs and ramp that provided access from the campground up to the base track.

When Staff Member J arrived at the campground about 6.45am, he parked his vehicle near the office and put on a hi-vis jacket.

As he approached the office he saw some people knocking on the door.

The report said Lisa asked him if he was from the campground. He replied that he was from the council.

Staff Member J said his conversation with Lisa lasted “probably two minutes”.

“He described her demeanour as being frustrated and agitated because she had not been able to get hold of anybody and there was no one from the campground around to speak to.”

He said Lisa told him that there was a “little slip” that had hit her caravan about 4.30am.

“She said that she was worried about the bank situation where her caravan was parked … [and that] she expressed concern that people around the base of the Mount should be evacuated.”

Staff Member J said he told the Maclennans that he couldn’t assist them, but he would try to contact the campground manager to tell him about their concerns.

“Staff Member J is clear that Lisa was not suggesting there was any need for an urgent response by the campground management, and she was not asking him to take any urgent action in relation to either the slips or the damage caused to their campervan.”

After speaking to the couple he called Staff Member N and asked them to contact Staff Member Q and get someone down to the office.

Travis said that when he and Lisa saw Staff Member Q he was speaking to some campers.

He said his wife approached Staff Member Q and said he needed to come over to their side of the campground because there had been some slips there, and they had been trying to get hold of him all morning.

Travis alleged Staff Member Q responded with what the report describes as a “rather dismissive wave of his hand” saying “I’ll get there when I get there”.

The couple then went back to their campervan to wait for him.

Staff Member Q’s version of the conversation was different. He said he was approached by four people while he was looking at the flooding around the ocean beach campsites.

He said the Maclennans told him their camper had a bit of damage to the rear bumper.

“I said as soon as I was finished, I would come over directly to see you.”