Waiwera Residents Wake to Collapsing Hillside as Storms Batter Northern New Zealand on ANZAC Day Eve

Dave Preston was still in bed when the hillside came down. “We were still in bed, it was still dark — the sun was just rising — and we heard a huge crash,” he said. “I thought it was thunder right over the house. That’s what it sounded like.” It was not thunder. Just after 6:30 on Friday morning, a large landslip tore through Waiwera Coach Trail Villas, a residential development north of Auckland along the Hibiscus Coast Highway. A tree fell through a neighbouring unit’s roof. Preston’s neighbour, he said, was “lucky not to be pinned to his bed.” The slip was the most dramatic moment in a chaotic morning for northern New Zealand, as a deep band of heavy rain swept across the upper North Island and triggered a series of emergencies from the Hibiscus Coast to the Coromandel Peninsula. By mid-morning, 18 properties at Waiwera had been evacuated as a precaution, with around six directly affected by the slide. No injuries were reported. RNZ reported that Auckland Council sent a geotechnical engineer to assess the site and confirmed there was no immediate threat to life. NZTA closed the Hibiscus Coast Highway from Hatfields Beach Reserve to the Puhoi interchange, and waived tolls on the Northern Gateway Toll Road for the duration of the closure to ease the diversion burden on commuters. Further south, two slips and a downed tree closed Port Jackson Road on the Coromandel Peninsula, adding to a picture of widespread disruption across the north. MetService had issued orange heavy rain warnings covering Eastern Northland south of Kawakawa, Eastern Auckland north of Whangaparaoa, and Great Barrier Island. Up to 150 millimetres of rain was forecast in parts of Northland, and up to 120mm in northeast Auckland. Rapid river rises, surface flooding, and difficult driving conditions were flagged, with thunderstorms possible throughout the afternoon. The timing compounded the difficulty. Fire and Emergency New Zealand was mid-way through a strike action from midday on Friday, meaning response times in affected areas would be delayed. Deputy National Commander Megan Stiffler confirmed that “volunteer crews will respond from next closest location” during the action. Despite that, the evacuation at Waiwera proceeded smoothly. Assistant district commander Quin Webster confirmed all residents of the 18 evacuated properties were safely out and everyone had been accounted for. What distinguished the Waiwera response was not just the professionalism of the emergency services but the speed with which the local community mobilised. Hibiscus and Bays Local Board member Gary Brown described the scene as neighbours opened their doors without being asked. “The Waiwera community have been offering people their homes, the hall that’s privately owned has given its key to the Community Resilience Group, and I believe the beach bar said it would be ready to help,” he said. For residents like Preston, the relief at avoiding a worse outcome was mixed with frustration. The pine trees whose roots gave way had been a known concern. “We’ve been calling the council for months trying to get the trees taken down, and now they’ve come down by themselves,” he said. It is a pattern that will be familiar to communities across New Zealand — concerns raised, files opened, and action deferred until the ground moves of its own accord. The storm cast a shadow over ANZAC Day preparations across the north. In Whangārei, the RSA took the difficult decision to cancel its traditional 6am dawn service at Laurie Hall Park — a rare cancellation that organisers said they could not recall having made before. The call came after consulting MetService and Whangārei District Council, with particular consideration given to the age and health of returned service personnel, most of whom are in their 70s or older. A 10am service at Maunu Cemetery for veterans’ families was still planned to go ahead. Not every commemoration blinked. At Tīnui in the lower North Island, the site of what is regarded as the first formal ANZAC service held in New Zealand in April 1916, organisers confirmed the 110th consecutive ceremony would proceed despite flooding damage to a water pipe. Alan Emerson, chair of the Tīnui Anzac Trust, was unequivocal. “The ceremony has been going for the last 110 years, and we are not going to stop it now,” he said. Up to 500 people are expected to make their way to the remote Wairarapa site on Saturday morning. That determination — communities refusing to be stopped — ran as a thread through Friday’s disruption. Evacuees welcomed into a stranger’s lounge. A bar pulling back its shutters. A 110-year ritual pressing ahead in the mud. The storms that swept across the north were real and damaging, but what they revealed about how New Zealanders respond to sudden difficulty was, in its way, reassuring. The forecast offers some comfort. MetService predicted the worst of the rain would clear through Friday, with ANZAC Day itself expected to be mostly settled and dry for the majority of the country. Dawn service-goers across most of New Zealand should be able to gather without weather interference on Saturday morning. The evacuations at Waiwera remained in place on Friday afternoon while the geotechnical assessment continued. Residents were being supported by welfare services and the community network that had formed within hours of the slip. Decisions on when they can return home will depend on the engineer’s findings. Were you caught up in the northern storms, or did bad weather affect your ANZAC Day plans? Share your experience in the comments below.

This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂