A family member of one of those missing in the Mount Maunganui campground slip says he was told the search operation was "pretty much just a recovery now".
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who visited the site earlier this afternoon, said he had met with some families today and that there was a "huge amount of grief" and a "huge amount of anxiety" around waiting for their loved ones to be found.
In an update at 2pm this afternoon, Police District Commander Tim Anderson confirmed six people were missing in the campground slip, including two 15-year-olds.
Another three people are unaccounted for, but they are believed to be international tourists who left the area before the slip.
FENZ Assistant National Commander David Guard, Regional Response Coordinator, would not confirm whether any bodies had been removed from the campground slip.
"We are in the middle of a rescue operation and it would be insensitive on families to talk about that openly in the public arena," Guard said.
"We are continuing to treat this as a rescue operation."
A Pauanui man said one of his relatives was among those missing and the family were waiting for news.
His family member was running around telling everyone to go before the landslide, and now she was among those missing, he said.
"The family was called this morning at 10am and was told that it's pretty much just a recovery now."
"That was a bit crap, but that's unfortunately life and how much it can change in a split second."
Spending time with families had been "incredibly humbling", Luxon said.
They're dealing with a "range of emotions", they are "anxious" but "hopeful".
'Bright' and talented musician mourned
RNZ is reporting the two people who died in the nearby Papamoa landslide are a grandmother and her grandson. Their bodies were discovered last night.
The Chinese Ambassador to New Zealand, Wang Xiaolong, confirmed one of the dead was a Chinese citizen.
The child killed in the Papamoa slip has been described as a "bright" talented musician by his piano teacher.
St Peter's Anglican Church director of music Chalium Poppy told RNZ the boy was due to come to a piano lesson at the Mt Maunganui church on Thursday.
Poppy said he was contacted by a friend of the family on Thursday to say the boy was missing in one of the slips.
"I'd been teaching all morning, so I hadn't heard the news about the slips yet, and so I was a little bit caught off guard and on the back foot, but it became obvious during the day that it was a lot more serious," he said.
"Then I found out again from a friend of the family, whose son also takes piano from me, that it was confirmed on Friday that he was one of the two victims."
Poppy said the boy had recently started taking piano lessons with him.
"He had only sort of just started, so he had a few lessons… but he was just really bright and incredibly talkative… asked lots of really great questions, like a really cool, sort of inquisitive mind, and obviously talented musically."
The church had opened its doors on Friday and were holding a vigil.
"It's all just very raw, like it's just happening, there are still people that are missing," he said.
"We're just responding the only way that … the church knows how, and that's to sort of open up our doors, provide sanctuary, provide a place for people to come and pray and sit in silence and light a candle. We're here to serve the community, so that's exactly what we do, and especially in times of need."
'Wall of mud trying to break through' before slip
In Mount Maunganui, the huge landslip came down on the southeastern corner of the Beachside Holiday Park at 9.30am yesterday, hitting campervans, cars, tents, hot pools and a toilet and shower block.
Tauranga Mayor Mahe Drysdale said initial indications were that there may have been a small slip in the early hours of Thursday morning on Mount Maunganui, and some people were able to move away from the area. How much warning there was will be addressed at a later date.
One man says he photographed the hillside where the Mt Maunganui slip came down, only an hour before it happened.
At the cordon on Friday afternoon, Colin McGonagle told RNZ he and four mates were out for a walk the morning of the slip, and they walked up to Pilot Bay and then through the motor camp, about 7.45am.
He said there were already signs a slip might have been forming, with water pouring out of the hillside and one tent already submerged in dirt and water.
"Him and I discussed the state of the dirt and the face that was there in front of us. It wasn't looking good.
He heard that a pile of dirt had come down half an hour earlier, and a nearby tree not 10 minutes before.
"You could see the water, it was like a wall of mud trying to break through [the hillside]."
But still, nobody seemed overly concerned at this stage, he said. His group moved on, went down to the beach, and then went home.
"Just around the corner, heard the sirens going, and came back down, and discovered the slip had gone just where we'd been standing.
"The enormity is still catching me, to be honest."
He said he'd been wondering about the father and daughter he had spoken to whose tent was already underwater earlier that morning.
So far, officials have confirmed two of the six people missing are teenagers.
A local whose apartment overlooks the campground slip said this morning crews had been furiously digging through the debris for nearly 24 hours.
Robyn Leech said the huge of scale of the slip felt "unreal", with diggers piling up "tonnes and tonnes of dirt".
She said she could see four diggers working at the scene this morning from her eighth floor apartment.
She said while one digger recombed through the dirt that was removed yesterday, three other diggers were slowly working around the hot pools.
Leech said the mood was eerie and sombre and the area was practically deserted, aside from Search and Rescue crews, police and security.
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell told RNZ this morning it was still a rescue operation, but he had not any update about signs of life.
The focus was on supporting the families who were enduring a "torturous, sombre and very emotional wait", he said, adding that families and rescue crews were evacuated yesterday from the local surf lifesaving club, which was being used as a support centre.
About 9.30am an RNZ reporter at the scene said a hearse branded Legacy Funerals had entered the cordon around the campground. He said left again, followed by a police car, just before 10am.
A hearse leaves the cordon around the campground at Mount Maunganui on Friday morning. Photo: RNZ
Rescue 'could take days'
It could take days before the rescue operation reaches people missing beneath the slip, Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said.
Speaking to the Herald, Chambers said disaster identification teams had to be "ready for everything".
"It could be days and we appreciate that everybody is anxious and waiting for their loved ones, and for some answers but we also we have to be very careful," he said.
"My heart goes out to them. I'm a father myself and I'm a policeman. I had a brief chat to a couple of them and they were very grateful for the work that we are doing. We're working really hard with them to give them answers as quickly as we possibly can," he said.
Chambers told the Herald answers would need to be given about why the campsite was not evacuated earlier despite the weather warnings.
However, that was not the current focus, he said.
Chambers said at the time he wouldn't be drawn on how many people remained missing but work was ongoing to establish who was at the campground when the landslide occurred.
He said there was still a high risk from further landslides in the weather-affected areas.
"We are operating in a complex and high-risk environment," Guard said.
"We will continue the operation until the search is complete. Our thoughts remain with the families of the people unaccounted for. We ask people to avoid the Mount to allow emergency services to have the space to work safely."
Kate, who is in an apartment near the slip, this morning told RNZ she could hear crews working at the site overnight.
"They had spotlights on, so the whole side of the mountain was pretty bright, you could hear sort of people obviously working all night... they were there all night," she said.
She believed there was a lot of manual work happening through the night.
"The families that must be waiting, it must be horrific for them," Kate said.
Police portal for information
Police are appealing for people who hold concerns about anyone they suspect are missing in the landslide to contact them.
This morning an online portal has been put on the police website asking for those with concerns about a person or people to make a report.
They are also appealing for people who were at the campsite and who left yesterday without officially checking out to report if they are safe.
'Complex and high-risk environment'
Fire and Emergency New Zealand National Commander Megan Stiffler said police and Fenz' specialist Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team were at the campground overnight.
"USAR teams provide specialist search, rescue and technical assessment capability.
"USAR is trained to operate in unstable ground, structural collapse and complex rescue environments.
USAR was carefully removing layers of debris and heavy machinery was on site to assist. Sniffer dogs were also being used.
"This is a complex and high-risk environment, and our teams are working to achieve the best possible outcome while keeping everyone safe," NC Stiffler said.
"The teams will be operating overnight until the search is complete."
Mitchell told The New Zealand Herald yesterday there were young people among the missing at the campground and it was a "heartbreaking" situation.
Fenz were leading the search, with police and civil defence on the ground to support.
"We are here to make sure everything that can be done is being done."
Mitchell earlier said fire personnel were working to dig people out of the slip.
However, Fenz said no signs of life had been heard since yesterday morning.
Bay of Plenty group manager William Pike said members of the public tried to get into the rubble and heard some voices.
The first fire crews to arrive also heard them.
Shortly after, Fenz withdrew everyone from the site due to safety concerns.
No signs of life had been heard since.
The Mount Maunganui Surf Life Saving Club was being used as a triage centre and evacuation point, but has also been evacuated due to the risks of slips, police said.
The rest of the campsite was evacuated earlier.
Mitchell said geoscientists would be doing a full assessment of the Mount before it could reopen to assure the public that it was safe.
Canadian tourist Dion Siluch and his family were staying in one of the campground cabins about an hour before the landslip swamped part of the park.
He watched another section of the mountain collapse but did not think anything of it until he was having a massage near the hot pools and heard rumbling.
"The whole room just started shaking and we couldn’t quite figure out what was happening.
"For a moment, we actually continued the massage until a big, large knock at the door happened and someone yelled and screamed ‘emergency’."
A caravan then landed "about 30 feet from the front door of the massage room".
"When we first walked out, we could see that we were very close to being hit by the mudslide.
"It almost seemed like somebody had driven their caravan off the road and maybe it had rolled down the hill.
"So I thought ‘that’s a disaster’.
"But when you saw the mud and you realised that it actually collapsed in the side of the hot pools and the retaining wall, it was like ‘oh, the mountain is collapsing. This is a real disaster’."
Mr Siluch said some people immediately wanted to start digging, while others wanted to go up the hill to see what had happened.
By the time they got back to their cabin, search and rescue teams had arrived by air and they were ordered to evacuate.
— RNZ/Allied Media
