{"id":251036,"date":"2026-01-25T12:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T12:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/251036\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T12:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T12:10:14","slug":"what-we-know-about-the-pause-in-recovery-at-scene-of-mount-maunganui-landslide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/251036\/","title":{"rendered":"What we know about the pause in recovery at scene of Mount Maunganui landslide"},"content":{"rendered":"

All recovery operations have come to a halt<\/a> at the scene of the Mount Maunganui landslide over concerns of further slips.<\/p>\n

Staff working at the campground, where six people are unaccounted<\/a>, were evacuated at 11.50am on Sunday.<\/p>\n

In a press conference, Bay of Plenty District Commander Superintendent Tim Anderson labelled the hillside as “unstable” and “unsafe”.<\/p>\n

He said geotechnical experts spotted a crack in the hillside – left of the slip – after being called to the scene.<\/p>\n

‘Foolish’ to continue work<\/p>\n

Anderson told media it would be “foolish” and “negligent” to have continued work.<\/p>\n

“I haven’t sighted the crack myself, but I have been told by experts… I have been advised that it is unsafe for anyone to work below that slip.”<\/p>\n

\"Mt<\/p>\n

\nMount Maunganui recovery site.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Nick Monro\n<\/p>\n

He said he understood family members of the victims may be frustrated.<\/p>\n

“While we certainly understand the frustrations this will cause, certainly our family members wanting to get their loved one back<\/a> and also our own police staff, we’ve had to do that for the safety of everyone concerned.<\/p>\n

“Fair to say there is a degree in understanding in terms of the safety, you’re dealing with obviously a significant tragedy from a number of days ago and we are not going to add any further harm to that.”<\/p>\n

Anderson said families of the landslide victims were informed of the halt in recovery work prior to the media stand-up.<\/p>\n

What next?<\/p>\n

Anderson said “equipment that can mitigate the risks that remain” was being brought to Mount Maunganui.<\/p>\n

He said the technology was “advanced” and “sensitive”, but did not specify where it was being brought in from.<\/p>\n

“We have a number of staff looking at that slip and monitoring the signs to keep everyone safe.”<\/p>\n

Further daily assessments are being done by geotechnical experts to determine the next steps in the recovery operation, Anderson said.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All recovery operations have come to a halt at the scene of the Mount Maunganui landslide over concerns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-251036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}