{"id":258633,"date":"2026-01-30T02:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T02:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/258633\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T02:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T02:47:11","slug":"mount-maunganui-landslide-waterpipe-network-to-be-investigated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/258633\/","title":{"rendered":"Mount Maunganui landslide: Waterpipe network to be investigated"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you\u2019ve got water pipes, that\u2019s something that people are going to flag and look at,\u201d he told the Herald.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople would be looking at the state those pipes were in and whether they experienced any damage or were leaking. The presence of pipes itself isn\u2019t a problem, but if those pipes were leaking and adding water into the slope, that\u2019s a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ForensicsForensics specialists at the scene of the Mount Maunganui landslide, where the operation to recover the remains of the missing is ongoing. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

A photo taken at 7.42am on the day of the landslide shows a small slip at the campground and an exposed blue pipe in the bank above where tents were pitched.<\/p>\n

Local Colin McGonagle<\/a>, who took the photo, told the Herald last week a \u201cmini waterfall\u201d was seen on the campground embankment prior to the deadly landslide. <\/p>\n

\"AA small slip and blue water pipe were visible at the campground before a deadly landslide that buried six people. Photo \/ Colin McGonagle<\/p>\n

While there is no evidence from the photo that the blue PVC pipe was leaking, neither emergency nor council staff would say whether it had concerns about the network, or if leaking pipes could have contributed to the amount of water seen by many campers flowing down the bank.<\/p>\n

Emergency Management Duty Controller Tom McEntyre told the Herald the focus at the moment remains recovering the missing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the recovery efforts are completed, we have secured the site and have geotechnical assessments that the landslide area is stable, there will be a process undertaken to examine the events that took place before and during this tragic event,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When the Herald pressed for confirmation about whether the pipe network would be investigated, a council spokesman told the Herald \u201call relevant matters\u201d would be considered as part of the council\u2019s independent review into the disaster.<\/a><\/p>\n

Robinson said while it would be important to consider the pipe network as a possible contributing factor, the record deluge would have been enough on its own to cause the bank to collapse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis area\u2019s had so much rainfall, you wouldn\u2019t need these pipes to be leaking to necessarily cause a problem, but that\u2019s for the investigation to find out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After the rainfall, multiple slips \u2013 including the deadly one at the campground and a large one behind the surf club \u2013 came down.<\/p>\n

\" Slips are visible near Mount Maunganui’s water tower on the northern side of the maunga. Photo \/ Corey Fleming<\/p>\n

Herald photos also show scars in the earth to the left of Mauao\u2019s water tower.<\/p>\n

In December last year, contractors completed work to apply a new waterproof membrane to the water tower\u2019s roof to protect stored water from contaminants.<\/p>\n

\"SixSix people, including two teenagers, were killed when the landslide hit the Beachside Holiday Park on January 22. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n

A notification from Tauranga City Council in September said Downer was undertaking annual water main \u201cscouring\u201d at Mount Maunganui to ensure the pipes were clean and free of defects.<\/p>\n

The Herald has asked Downer whether any issues were noted during its latest inspection but is yet to receive a response.<\/p>\n

Robinson said Mauao is made of rhyolite rock, which is \u201cparticularly prone\u201d to landslides when hit with heavy rain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt breaks down really easily when it\u2019s wet. So that\u2019s often a concern and that\u2019s why we see so many landslides across the mountain any time it rains,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Given how vulnerable the maunga is to landslides, Robinson said the surface of the mountain is often made up of colluvium, which is a mix of loose soil and rock fragments left from other slips.<\/p>\n

Michael Morrah<\/a> 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\u2019s video team in July 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIf you\u2019ve got water pipes, that\u2019s something that people are going to flag and look at,\u201d he told…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21045,5195,4379,6659,10938,8454,35200,56662,57583,38915,17707,19722,13233,3805,111,43,139,69,66894,6660,148808,8244,64572,8229,61,12414,10939,376,148807,3608,540,1533],"class_list":["post-258633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-above","tag-be","tag-compromised","tag-deadly","tag-herald","tag-including","tag-investigated","tag-landslide","tag-leadup","tag-located","tag-maunganui","tag-maunganuis","tag-mount","tag-network","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-occurred","tag-pipe","tag-pipes","tag-recent","tag-slip","tag-they","tag-to","tag-underground","tag-understands","tag-water","tag-waterpipe","tag-were","tag-where","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258633","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=258633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}