Macfarlane said McClennan was staying in a campervan next to his tent and she told him her camper was hit by a small slip in the night, and she wanted to ensure he was safe.
“She said it felt like an earthquake [when mud hit her campervan]. She told me if she didn’t wake me up and warn us and then something happened, that it would forever be in the back of her mind.”
Macfarlane said McClennan managed to get some of the other campers to move away from the base of the mountain.
“She was warning everyone that there were slips and she recommended that they move.”
“I think she’s a hero. She has done her best but ended up being caught in it.”
McClennan, who was a literacy tutor at Morrinsville Intermediate, went into the camp’s shower and toilet block – possibly to warn others of the threat – when the landslide buried the complex around 9.30am Thursday.
“She saved lots of people and she didn’t have to do it. She’s done it on her own will. Obviously, it wasn’t her job to be waking people up and alerting them to potential danger,” Macfarlane said.
Macfarlane said McClennan and her partner had tried to notify those in charge at the council-owned campground of the threat, but no one was at the office.
“Her and her partner tried the after-hours number at the camp office, but it just went through to security, and no one came. They tried to ring other numbers to get advice on what to do,” he said.
Lance Macfarlane and his daughter were staying in this tent when he was woken up at 5am by teacher Lisa McClennan who warned him to get out. Photo / Colin McGonagle
Macfarlane says her calls would have been made between 5am and 8am.
He said staff eventually arrived but seemed more concerned about a large slip behind the surf club on the main beach.
Macfarlane said he notified the campground manager of the slips at the campground itself.
“We told him that there were slips and eventually he came through with the council guy in his golf buggy. They’ve seen it [the slips] and carried on to the other end [of the campground]. After that, we just waited to, he was supposed to come back to us, but he never did.”
Photos provided to the Herald by resident Colin McGonagle show staff in the golf buggy near waterlogged tents at 7.42am.
A photo at the Mount Maunganui campsite taken early Thursday show Lance Macfarlane’s waterlogged tent and staff in a golf buggy at 7.42am. Photo / Colin McGonagle
He said by 8.30am staff had arrived at the campground office.
At 8.56am council staff set up cordons to prevent walkers heading up Mount Maunganui, but at no stage were campers beneath Mauao formally warned to evacuate.
Around 9am, Macfarlane and his daughter checked out.
They then left the office to have a walk on the beach, and at 9.31am the hillside collapsed.
“I just grabbed her and said, ‘run’. And we just ran, and we just kept going, keeping out of the way. You could hear all the noises and screaming, it was just terrible.”
Workers are still trying to recover the remains of six people who are unaccounted for at the Mount Maunganui campsite. Photo / Jason Dorday
He said his immediate priority was the safety of his daughter and ensuring she was kept away from the unfolding tragedy.
“I didn’t want her to see it anymore. No one expected that much dirt to come down”, he said.
Later they went to the surf club to talk to police and sign paperwork to confirm he and his daughter had made it out alive.
Michael Morrah is a senior investigative reporter/team leader at the Herald. He won News Journalist of the Year at the 2025 Voyager Media Awards and has twice been named Reporter of the Year at the New Zealand Television Awards. He has been a broadcast journalist for 20 years and joined the Herald’s video team in July 2024.