Mauao Landslide

Tauranga City Council acknowledges the significant public interest in the Mauao landslide that occurred on Thursday, 22 January 2026.

To support transparency and help keep our community informed, this page has been created as a central online library for all essential updates, links, and resources related to the Mauao landslide.

We acknowledge the significance of Mauao and the impact this tragic event has had on the families who have lost their loved ones, tangata whenua, Mount Maunganui residents and businesses, and the wider community.

Answers to questions about how council and our partners are working towards reopening Mauao

On 21 January 2026, a state of emergency was declared across the Bay of Plenty region. Tauranga experienced extreme rainfall, with 199.3mm recorded on 21 January and a further 96.1mm on 22 January. This severe weather caused widespread damage across our city and region, including multiple landslides and damage to infrastructure.

Mauao, our city’s treasured maunga (mountain), was particularly affected. Forty-two landslides occurred and, tragically, a large landslide above Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park claimed the lives of six people. Our thoughts remain with those who lost their lives across the region on 22 January, and with their families and loved ones. The devastating impacts of this weather event will continue to be felt by our city and our people for many years to come.

Further across Tauranga, our city experienced widespread impacts, including a major landslide at Mangatawa, localised landslides, flooding, infrastructure damage, and multiple road closures.

Police officially stood down their recovery operation at the Mauao landslide site on 1 February 2026. Following the handover from police, the site was officially moved into a recovery phase led by the Tauranga City Council to demobilise the recovery work, assess damage and work towards the safe reopening of Mauao.

Following the severe weather event, specialist geologists and geotechnical engineers began assessing damage on Mauao to understand what had occurred, identify safety risks, and determine the best options to address at-risk areas. Tauranga City Council continues to work in partnership with Mauao Trust on any decisions relating to the maunga.

If you can’t find the information you are looking for on this page, please email Tauranga City Council at Information.Requests@tauranga.govt.nz.

Working towards reopening Mauao to the public

January’s severe weather event caused extensive damage to Mauao, including multiple landslides across the maunga. Council’s goal is to return Mauao to public use, but only when it is safe and sustainable to do so.

Council is working closely with the Mauao Trust on all planning and decision-making for the mountain and surrounding areas. This partnership ensures cultural values, guardianship responsibilities and public safety are properly considered alongside technical and engineering assessments.

Before Mauao can reopen, Council must be confident that public safety risks can be managed. This includes ensuring that:

• Experts are confident the risk of further slips, rockfall and track failure can be managed.
• Decisions are made about what remediation work is required, how complex it will be, and how it will be funded
• Council continues to work alongside the Mauao Trust and tangata whenua, who are key partners in decisions about the maunga.
• Ongoing independent reviews and investigations provide the information needed to support a safe reopening.

Council is also considering a partial or staged reopening of the maunga, which could include some sections of the base track and summit routes reopening earlier than others. Any partial reopening would depend on safety assessments and engineering advice. Access will remain restricted until risks are acceptable.

Current work underway

Initial damage and safety assessments have been completed by specialist geotechnical engineers. Current work is focused on:

• Detailed assessment of landslip locations and their severity.
• Understanding ongoing instability, drainage issues and future risk.
• Identifying which areas might be remediated first and which are more complex.
• Developing options for repair rather than simple cleanup, particularly where track structure has been lost

This work builds on the initial assessment phase and moves toward planning practical next steps.

Timeline

Any reopening decisions will be made jointly by Mauao Trust and Tauranga City Council, with physical and cultural safety as the primary considerations. Information and analysis to date suggest that restoring access to Motukauri (summit track network) will be easier than restoring the Te Ara Tūtanga (base track around Mauao). Planning is underway to enable restoration of operational and maintenance access to the summit. The base track is important to the community, but it is also the most complex area to remediate. Implementing a plan to access the summit is underway and is expected to take up to approximately four months, however this is dependent on weather conditions over the coming months.

Read the Recovery Update from the Mayor and Councillors - March 2025 update

Key information

• Mauao remains closed to protect public safety. Permanent fencing has been installed to keep people out of the affected area, as the site remains hazardous. Geotechnical engineers are continuing to assess risks surrounding several structures at the base of Mauao.
• Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park is closed until further notice.
• Mount Hot Pools closed until further notice.
• Slip alert alarm system in place at Mount Hot Pools and Campground area.
• Mauao Landslide - Geotechnical Response Community Guide (503kb pdf)
• Rapid building assessment placarding system – How it works (46kb pdf)
• Surf club building remains red-placarded.
• Pilot Bay boat ramp closed until further notice.
• The Mall, Maunganui Road, Marine Parade and Adams Avenue are open to vehicles and pedestrians. Stay up to date with event road closures here.
• Hopukiore Mount Drury is open and is a designated tsunami safe location.
• The Rāhui placed by Tangata Whenua over parts of Waikorire (Pilot Bay) and Hīnekite (Mount Main Beach) following January’s severe weather event has been lifted.
• Due to the risk of landslip and the associated maritime safety risks around Mauao/Mount Maunganui, a 30-metre exclusion zone put in place by the Bay of Plenty Regional Harbourmaster remains. The exclusion zone applies to all vessels and people and is 30 metres from the base/shore of Mauao.

Transition period ends

The Local Transition Notice for Tauranga City Council, which took effect on February 4 and was extended to 1 April, has ended. Recovery work can now be managed using our normal legislation and policies, rather than emergency provisions.