An official investigation began yesterday into the collapse of the Omaha house deck on Sunday night, in which nine people suffered injuries ranging from lacerations to broken bones.
Injured survivors yesterday described how the deck had "completely and utterly buckled", leaving a scene of devastation.
House owner Nina Stevenson said a builder had inspected two decks at the property about two to three years ago and given the all-clear to the one that collapsed.
However, the inspection had shown another deck, on the southern side of the property, to be unsafe and it was locked off with a warning sign stuck to the glass door leading to it.
The renters had unrestricted access to the other deck that collapsed 2.5m.
Mrs Stevenson said she and her husband were extremely upset about what had happened and had been ringing Auckland and North Shore hospitals for updates on the injured.
"I'm just concerned about the people that were hurt.
"This whole experience would be so traumatic for the people involved.
"That's our only concern at the moment. Everything else will come later."
She said her family holidayed at the property only last week.
When they purchased the property about 10 years ago they were given a report showing the house was safe, she said.
"We would never let people on the deck if we didn't think it was safe.
"Why would we put our own children on it? It's just been such a huge shock to us."
Auckland Council spokeswoman Angeline Barlow said a building inspector was sent to the property yesterday to determine the cause of the collapse.
The inspector's findings would be sent to the police, who would decide how to proceed from there, she said.
Last night, seven of the injured partygoers had been discharged from North Shore and Auckland hospitals, with the remaining two awaiting surgery on a dislocated elbow and injured ankle.
Lucy Akroyd (23) had just walked on to the deck when it went down.
"It just completely and utterly buckled and we just flew down on to the concrete below.
"We had a table and chairs with us, so they smashed in amongst us all, and then the ranchslider smashed on top of us," she said.
"People were stumbling all around, there was blood ... it was just quite chaotic."
Ms Akroyd was stuck in the rubble for half an hour before being taken by ambulance to Auckland Hospital.
One of the first on the scene was former All Black Glen Osborne, who, with Karl Newton, was on security patrol.
"There was a lot of panic, a lot of injured people ...
"We had an injured girl right by the front gate, and I took care of her while Karl assessed the situation around the back, which was not good, as you can imagine."
He said the girl he assisted was badly injured and in shock.
"Her teeth had gone right through the bottom of her lip ... Once the fire department got there, the head man took charge of the situation and after that we were just patrolling people and traffic and organising an area for the helicopter to land."
Ben Simpson (23) said the only warning the deck was about to collapse had been a "big crack".
"I just took the brunt of everybody on top of me.
"There was a lot of confusion, and a bit of blood, and the girls were all screaming.
"It's just surreal."
He thinks he cut the top of his head open when a glass ranchslider door on the floor below the deck shattered.
